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OKIGIN AND PROGRESS 



OF 



THE UNITED STATES. 



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WASHINGTON "^'CARTNEY, ESQ. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY E. H. BUTLER & CO. 

1847. 



EiU«rcd according to the Act of Congress, in llie year 1S46, by 

K. H. nUTl.KU & CO., 

In the OiUoc of the Clerk of tiie district Court of the I'niteJ States in and for 

the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 






TO THE 

YOUNG MEN OF THE UNITED STATES 

THE FOLLOWING LECTURES DESCRIPTIVE OF THE 

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC, 

ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS, 



PRELIMINARY LECTURE. 

Elements of human history — The historic record — Civilization and the 
Divine Plan — The extent of history — The kind of facts it makes 
known — Civilization — What it is, and how made known in history — • 
Theories concerning progressive civilization : I. The Egyptian 
Civilization ; II. The Grecian ; III. The Chinese ; IV. The Hin- 
doo ; V. The Mexican or Aztec ; VI. The Saracenic ; VII. The 
Germanic, or modern European Civilization — Connexion of these 
civilizations with each other — influence of religion and commerce on 
Civilization — Connexion of our republic with the European Civili- 
zation — Peculiarities of this civilization in our Republic : Demo- 
cracy and free religion — The Divine Plan — Its admission gives 
imity to events in history — The principle of design illustrated — 
Benefits of a historic knowledge of institutions Page 13 



LECTURE n. 
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 

The events of our history to be viewed as agencies in the establishment 
of democratic government — The period of discovery and explora- 
tion — The discovery rendered inevitable : I. By the political con- 
dition of Europe ; II. By the state of the arts and sciences — The 
discovery in what respects accidental — Motives which led to the ex- 
ploration of the country: I. The desire to acquire new territory — ■ 
The rule of discovery ; II. The hope of finding a westward passage 
to India — Attempts to discover such a passage — The hope of finding 
gold in America — Fabulous localities — Expedition of De Soto. 
III. The desire to plant colonies in America — Attempts to colonize 
the valley of the St. Lawrence — Distribution of these several mo- 
tives of exploration among the English, the Spaniards and the 
French — Connexion of these discoveries and explorations with our 
republic 55 



VI • CONTENTS. 

LECTURE III. 

COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 

Period of Colonization — Connexion of its events with democratic go- 
vernment — Attempts at colonization — The first attempt is made by 
foreign corporations — King James's charters — I. Attempt by a cor- 
poration to colonize Virginia ; success, difficulties, and final failure^ 
II. Attempt by a corporation to colonize New England ; difficulties, 
grants of territory, and failure — III. Attempt by a corporation to 
settle New Sweden — IV. Attempt by a corporation to settle the 
New Netherlands : The Dutch West India Company — V. Attempt 
by a corporation to colonize Georgia — Objects and difficulties — Suc- 
cessive failure in these attempts — Causes of their failure — Corpora- 
tions not well fitted to plant colonies — Benefits arising firom their 
labours, and dissolution 86 

LECTURE IV, 
FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 

Attempts at American Colonization by feudal nobles — I. First of 
these attempts in Maryland — Plan of Calvert : liberty of conscience 
and political privileges — Results of his attempt — II. Attempt at 
feudal colonization in New Jersey and New York ; its failure — III. 
Attempt at feudal colonization in Pennsylvania; its character — Be- 
comes merged in democracy — Penn, and his plan for a colony — 
IV. Attempt at feudal colonization in the Carolinas ; its results — 
Locke's constitutions — Character and results of all these attempts — 
Attempts of the English sovereigns to put themselves at the head 
of American colonization — The two ideas which were the cause of 
these royal attempts : I. Inalienable sovereignty ; II. Perpetual 
allegiance — These ideas unsuited to the condition of afliiirs in the 
colonies — Successfully resisted by the colonists — Failure of the royal 
attempts to control the colonies 114 

LECTURE V. 
POPULAR COLONIZATION. 

Popular colonization : I. Attempts by the people directly to plant co- 
lonies — Settlement of New England — First constitution formed on 



CONTENTS. Va 

the Mayflower— Pure democracy— Religious liberty— Roger Wil- 
liams promulgates entire liberty of conscience ; II. Attempts by the 
people to gain the control of colonies planted by corporations and 
feudal nobles — Success in the several colonies — Causes of the po- 
pularization of all the colonies : I. Many of the colonists came to 
escape from oppression in Europe — Connexion of the Reformation 
with liberty in America — Progress of liberal opinion ; II. The 
emigrants were in America removed from the influence of old and 
illiberal institutions — System of laws, however, carried with them 
to America — Adaptation of the common law to the colonies — Abo- 
lition of the law of primogeniture — All the colonial movements 
tended towards popular government — Conclusion of the review of 
American colonization 143 



LECTURE VI. 
CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

The colonies in general managed their internal aflairs — 'England con- 
trolled their external aflairs — Diflerent interpretations of the con- 
nexion of the colonies with England, as given, (1) by the king ; (2) by 
the parliament ; (3) by the colonists — I. First and great cause of the 
Revolution to be found in the commercial policy of England towards 
the colonies — Commercial system of Europe — Its main idea — Gives 
rise to the colonial system of Europe — England's colonial policy 
arising from the commercial system — Restrictions on the colonies, 
(1) in favour of the merchants and ship-owners ; (2) in favour of the 
manufacturers; (3) in favour of the land-holders — Efl'ect on the co- 
lonies — Reasons of their submission to the restrictions — II. Second 
cause of the Revolution to be found in the African slave-trade — 
England's participation in that trade, and its effect on the colonies — 
Their opposition to it overruled — Motives for its continuance — III. 
Third cause of the Revolution found in the destruction of the colo- 
nial system of Europe — Commercial wars arise among the European 
nations — Fall of the colonial system — EfTect on the colonies — IV. 
Fourth cause of the Revolution, the attempt of Great Britain to 
tax the colonies — Commencement of this taxation — Reasons of the 
colonists for resisting it — Origin of taxation in England — Theory 
of the British Empire, as entertained in America — V. Minor 
grievances leading to the Revolution — Interference with the colonial 
currency — Importation of criminals — Violation of chartered rights — 
These causes all centred in the commercial system — Their long-con- 
tinued action — Their final effect in the liberation of America. . . 162 



VIU CONTENTS. 

LECTURE VII. 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

Military and political parts of the Revolution — Adverse circumstances 
attending the military part : I. Want of money ; II. Want of a well 
organized army; III. Want of a general government; IV. E.xposed 
position of the country ; V. Border warfare of the Indians ; VI. To- 
ries — Favourable circumstances attending the military part of the 
Revolution : I. Character of the people ; II. Wisdom and energy of 
Congress; III. Fortunate selection of military men ; IV. Alliances 
with foreign nations ; V. Friends in England — Successful conclusion 
of the military part — The political part of the Revolution — No union 
among the colonies — Attempts to organize a government — I. The 
Confederation ; Its characterizing features ; (1) Legislation for states ; 
(2) No sanction to its laws. Its practical operation : Causes of its 
failure — II. The constitution : Circumstances of its origin ; Its pe- 
culiar nature arising from a compromise of views and interests ; Its 
characterizing features ; (1) Legislation for individuals, not states ; (2). 
Power to compel obedience to its laws ; (3) Distribution of execu- 
tive, legislative, and judicial power — The adoption of the constitution 
completed the Revolution — Nature of the results obtained by the 
Revolution — Legitimacy and Democracy — The Revolution the termi- 
nation of a series of agencies to establish popular government. . 206 



LECTURE VIII. 

FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS, 

Political parties arise from liberty — Origin of the Federalists and 
Anti- federalists — Views of parties in the Convention to frame the 
Constitution — State Sovereignty and National Sovereignty — The 
Federalists and Democrats — Their primary dividing line — They 
divided upon the strength or weakness of the national government 
— Their main ideas — Their names — Measures on which they dif- 
fered : I. They differed in regard to the ptiblic debt — Origin of that 
debt — Views of parties in reference to it — Results respecting it ; 
II, They differed in regard to a National Bank — Grounds of their 
opposition to that measure — Reasons urged for it by the Federalists 
— Jefferson and Hamilton became the leaders — Their respective 
views and characters ; III. The parties differed in regard to our re- 
lations with France and Great Britain — Claim of France upon the 
United States for aid in the wars of the French Revolution — Pro- 



CONTENTS. IX 

clamation of neutrality — Effect upon the parties — Relations with 
Great Britain — Provisions — Right of Search — Jay's Treaty — Their 
effect upon the parties — French war threatened — Position of the 
parties — War with Great Britain — Views of the parties respecting 
it — These questions only incidentally connected with the parties ; 
IV. They differed in regard to the army and navy — The Democrats 
oppose the organization of an army — They oppose the navy — Rea- 
sons of their opposition — These measures advocated by the Fede- 
ralists ; V. They differed in regard to the Alien and Sedition Laws 
— Object of those laws — Opposed by the Democrats — Change of 
parties — Review of their differences — The two classes of measures 
on which they differed : namely, the foreign relations and the do- 
mestic policy — The measures relating to domestic policy came into 
direct collision with one or other of the main ideas of the two parties 
—General conclusions respecting the two parties: (1.) They ex- 
changed creeds when they exchanged positions ; (2.) They were 
pretty equally divided in regard to men and influence ; (3.) They in 
general acted from patriotic motives ; (4.) They were not responsible 
for the abuse of their political creeds by others ; (5.) These party 
discussions serve certain good purposes. These parties ceased with 
the close of the war of 1812 249 

LECTURE IX. 

THE WAR OF 1812. 

Governments have external as well as internal duties to perform— 
Evidences of the ability of our republic to manage its external 
affairs — This abiUty manifested in the causes, events, and circum- 
stances of the war of 1812 — I. Causes of the war: (1) Aggressions 
of Great Britain upon the commerce of the United States — Orders 
in council — Berlin and Milan decrees — Paper blockades — Injuries 
to American commerce — Defensive measures — Embargo — Its ope- 
ration — Non-Intercourse — Continental system of Napoleon — Mari- 
time system of England — Effect of these aggressions upon the 
American people ; (2) Right of search, and impressment — This 
right not claimed against national armed vessels — Admission of the 
right to search neutral vessels for contraband goods, for enemy's 
property, and for men in the land and naval service — The right to 
search for sailors and seamen denied by the United States — Evils 
of the system as practised by Great Britain ; (3) Instigation of the 
Northwest Indians against the United States — Attempts to disturb 
the Union — These evils result in the war of 1812 — II. General course 
of events of the war : (1) The military part— Conducted all round 



X CONTENTS. 

the country — Results on the northwest — On the north — Along the 
Atlantic coast — On the southwest ; (2) The naval part — Unexpected 
success of the navy — Moral power of this success — Preponderance 
of naval triumphs in favour of the United States — III. Sources of 
the naval triumphs of the Americans — IV. The army less successful 
than the navy — Causes of its frequent failures — V. Adverse circum- 
stances in which the war was conducted — Some were accidental, 
others belong to the form of our government — Of the accidental 
embarrassments the greatest was the condition of the navy — Of the 
embarrassments, springing from our form of government, the greatest 
was the party opposition — Cause of this opposition — Addresses — 
Conventions — Legislative resolutions — Hartford Convention — Ef- 
fects of the opposition — VI. Changes in Europe prepare the way for 
peace — Treaty of Ghent — Results — Our republican system can 
bring the force of the nation to the defence of its rights .... 303 

LECTURE X. 

GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION— CONSERVATIVE IN- 
FLUENCES. 

Many peculiarities of the United States attributable to the condition 
of the natives and the great extent of country in North America — 
Geographical extension : I. Limits of the United States at the close 
of the Revolution — Settlement of the region between the AUegha- 
nies and the Mississippi — The fertility of the country and the rapid 
increase of its population — The new states formed between the 
Alleghany Mountains and Mississippi river; II. The Louisiana 
purchase — Its extent — Circumstances which gave it to the United 
States — The advantages of this acquisition; III. The acquisition 
of Florida — Its addition furnishes the United States a natural boun- 
dary on the south; IV. The annexation of Texas — Statement of 
the arguments upon the question of its admission — Benefits derived 
from these several acquisitions of territory ; V. Extension of the 
United States to the Pacific — Oregon and its limits — Its benefit to 
the United States and to the progress of civihzation — Summary of 
the geographical additions to the Union. 

Conservative influences — They are moral, political, and mechanical : 
I. The moral influences (1), Education (2), Religion (3), Uniformity 
of laws, languages, and habits ; II. The political influences (1), The 
federative system (2), The ballot-box ; III. The material influences 
(1), The power of steam (2), The public press (3), Improvements in 
the arts — Effect of these combined influences upon the permanence 
of our republican system — Conclusion 357 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

The following Lectures are designed, as the 
title imports, to give a view of the Origin and 
Progress of the United States. The first part 
of this title has reference to the events con- 
nected with North America previously to the 
Revolution ; the second part comprises the gen- 
eral course of affairs since that epoch. The 
originating period contains a variety of facts, 
apparently isolated, accidental, and disconnected 
with any ultimate results. An attempt is here 
made to exhibit the mode in which these facts 
contributed to the production, union, and pecu- 
liarities of our republic. The second period — 
the period of Progress, which I have marked 
as extending from the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion in A. D. 1789, to the present time, also em- 
braces a large variety of affairs, which combine 
to give an exhibition of the advancement of the 



XU INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

United States in power, in political skill, in 
population, and in geographical extension. 
The events belonging to this period make 
known the process by which our institutions 
have acquired their present degree of stability. 
In treating of the affairs of this period it is per- 
haps impossible to avoid the exceptions that 
may be taken by men of different political 
views. I have only to say that the theories 
and results here stated are stated in all candour, 
and seemed to be warranted by the facts upon 
which they rest. 

With these remarks the present volume is 
submitted to the reader. 

Easton, Pa., July 4'th, 1846. 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 



OF 



THE UNITED STATES. 



PRELIMINARY LECTURE. 

Elements of human history — The historic record — Civilization and 
the Divine Plan — The extent of history — The kind of facts it makes 
knovsrn — Civilization — What it is, and how made known in history — 
Theories concerning progressive Civilization : I. The Egyptian 
Civilization; II. The Grecian; III. The Chinese; IV. The Hin- 
doo ; V. The Mexican or Aztec ; VI. The Saracenic ; VII. The 
Germanic, or modern European Civilization — Connexion of these 
civilizations with each other — Influence of religion and commerce 
on Civilization — Connexion of our Republic with the European 
Civilization — Peculiarities of this Civilization in our Republic : De- 
mocracy and free religion — The Divine Plan — Its admission gives 
unity to events in history — The principle of design illustrated — 
Benefits of a historic knowledge of institutions. 

I PROPOSE to deliver a course of lectures on the his- 
tory of the United States. Instead, however, of pro- 
ceeding immediately to the events connected with the 
origin and progress of oiu' republic, I will, in this pre- 
liminary lecture, direct your attention to some general 
views of history. My design in doing this is to give 
you first a general notion of the connexion of the United 
States with other nations, and to represent, if possible, in 
B 



14 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

luminous, profninent relief, the part our country is act- 
ing in the career of the human race. 

" All the world 's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players." 

What part in this great drama do the " men and wo- 
men" of our republic act ? We will be able to answer 
tliis question when we shall have learned what parts of 
the play have already been performed by other nations ; 
and this knowledge we obtain from history. 

History deals in facts. It is a record of what has 
been done among the human race. But the simple re- 
cord is not the whole of history. In addition to the re- 
corded facts, there are others whose existence is made 
known rather inferentially than expressly. The first of 
these inferential facts is the design or plan of the Divine 
Governor of the world in reference to the human race. 
This fact lies back of those that appear upon the historic 
record. The second of these inferential facts is the 
civilization of the human race. This fact runs parallel 
with those that appear upon the record. These two 
facts come to our knowledge inferentially, and in that 
respect differ from the facts usually set forth m the nar- 
rations of history: they are, nevertheless, facts. The 
mode in which we obtain a knowledge of them does 
not affect their existence or their nature. That the pre- 
sent European race is generally civilized, is as much a 
fact as that our republic exists. That the Ruler of the 
world has a design or plan in reference to the human 
race, is as much a fact as that the plant grows or the 
flower fades. We may therefore say, that the main ele- 
ments of human history are the usually narrated facts — 
the civilization of mankind — and the plan of the Divine 
Governor of the world in regard to the human race. 



THE HISTORIC RECORD. 15 

These three elements are connected together as design, 
means, and end. The existence of a moral Governor 
of the world involves the idea of a Ruler who plans or 
designs ends beneficial to the human race : civilization 
is one of these ends, and the facts narrated in history 
are actions or agencies by which this end is attained. 

To show the legitimacy of the statement just made ; 
to give you a definite idea of the elements of human 
history ; and to show you how they are connected to- 
gether, let us pass in review before you 

Firstj The Historic Record ; 

Second, Civilization ; 

Third, The Divine Design. 

This review will give you a general notion of the 
connexion of the United States with other nations, both 
with those whose race is run and with those who now 
figure on the stage of action. We need not torture our- 
selves to keep these three divisions entirely separate. 
For since when taken together they form one system, 
and are intimately connected together as design, means, 
and end, the consideration of one of them necessarily 
involves some portions of the others. But preserving 
between them such a separation as their natural unity 
admits, we are to consider, in the first place, 

THE historic RECORD. 

You have a general idea of what is understood by 
history. You know that it is a narration of facts, of 
events, of matters that concern masses of men. Were 
v/e to divide it into ancient and modern, or into civil, 
political, and ecclesiastical, we would be making merely 
artificial divisions. The plan of Providence in reference 
to the human race, is one system, one plan ; and not 
many. The facts or events which have come to pass in 



16 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the accomplishment of this plan, and many of which are 
noted on the record of history, are consequently only one 
system of facts. Some of these facts occurred " long 
time aiio." Some of them occurred in the church, and 
some of them out of the church ; but they are all parts 
of one system, and have the unity which belongs to dif- 
ferent means, all co-operating to one result. 

Were we to divide history into ancient and modern, 
we might be perplexed to find the boundary where the 
ancient ceases, and the modern commences. Were we 
to classify it into civil, political, and ecclesiastical, we 
would be dividing in theory what has been united in 
fact. For the stream of time flows equably and un- 
ceasingly onward. Nations are young, gi'ow old, and 
pass away ; all are, in turn, ancient and modern. Their 
lairth, their life, and their death, are told to us in the 
brief narrations of history ; but of some of them we 
have only a few meager sketches ; mere scratchings of 
enigmatical figures are in many cases all that is left to 
us of great nations. But the representations of history, 
whether obscure or bright, whetlier meager or full, ex- 
hibit to us political institutions, religious ceremonies, 
and social life. These institutions, ceremonies, and 
life, have generally been combined into one system, and 
have existed not separately, but unitedly. Facts affect- 
ing them make up the body of the historic record. 

As an illustration of this, cast your eye over the his- 
tory of Europe during the last thirteen centuries, and 
what facts do you see revealed ? You see nations strug- 
gling into being. Yoii see men contending for civil 
rights. You see kings and princes warring abroad and 
at home to maintain their political existence, or increase 
their political power. You see also the influence of the 
religious element. Everywhere your eye falls upon 



THE HISTORIC RECORD. 17 

facts connected with social life, political rights, and ec- 
clesiastical matters. If you look beyond the present 
European nations, the same tliree elements still furnish 
tlie facts of history. In old Persia, in Egypt, in Greece, 
in Judea, in China, in India, and wherever you turn, you 
witness a series of facts connected with religion, with 
national independence, and with civil rights. You 
everywhere see men diligent in their own individual 
afiiiirs, or in the afliiirs of the nation, or in matters of 
religion. In a word, religion, politics, and private pro- 
perty, occupy the attention of mankind. The state in 
its internal organization or in its external relations, is 
what w^e mean by politics. 

But over what extent in time do the representa- 
tions of history reach, and how much of the destiny 
of our race do they exhibit ? Have men always been 
attending to religion, politics, and property, and 
will they continue to attend to them through all gen- 
erations to come ? History is essentially made up of 
things that are past ; but the destiny of mankind reaches 
from the past into the future. The career of the human 
race opens in Paradise, and the vicissitudes of its march 
to the present time are, as we have said, very meagerly 
sketched in history. But where history drops the pen, 
prophecy takes up the story ; and by anticipating the 
course of events, by noting down results rather than 
processes, reveals the progress of man towards the 
consummation of his being. If w^e look to the past, 
we learn a few of the vicissitudes of the race. 
Scraps of narratives, relics, monuments, mummies, and 
the cast-off garments of dead nations, inform us of the 
general movements of mankind in the ages that are 
finished. If we turn to the future, the coming fortinies 
of the race are shadowed forth in prophecy. If we 

B* 



18 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

try to follow these fortunes onward in time, trumpets of 
joy and trumpets of sorrow sound in our ears, great 
chauQ^es are intimated, times of adversity come on, 
brighter days arrive, and the prophetic curtain drops on 
the human race in the full blaze of millenial glory. 
Between the original imparadised state of man in Eden, 
and his reimparadised state in tlie Messianic kingdom, 
where prophecy itself ceases to follow his fortunes, a 
long, long tract of time intervenes. 

In this interval the past and the future meet, and 
history, joining hands with pro})hecy, follows our race 
in its travels from the paradise of the creation to the 
l)aradise of the millenium. The genend fortunes of man 
between tliese two states are Uius evolved before us, but 
shadows, clouds, and darkness, often rest upon them. 
If prophecy be obscure, history is meager ; but notwith- 
standing tlieir dimness when united, they form an out- 
line — a general landscape of human tilings, which has 
many points of intense interest. This landscape — this 
picture of the race in all its fortunes, past and to 
come, is one single piece — one simple grand tableau. 
It contains, however, so many obscure points, and such 
a variety of particulars, and is spread over such a vast 
space, that our vision is not competent to take in at a 
single view its details and grand figures. 

This incompetency or inability compels us to restrict 
our attention to some isolated portion of the great pic- 
ture. Accordingly, one writer occupies himself upon 
prophecy ; another, upon history ; and tliese divisions 
ai-e again subdivided. A Gibbon writes the history of 
declining Rome ; a Hume romances about the history of 
England ; the pen of a Robertson adorns the times of 
Charles V., while a Vitringa draws from Divine revela- 
tion details of future events. The great and comprehen- 



THE HISTORIC RECORD. 19 

sive landscape of human fortunes is thus cut and caiTed, 
and we have an inftnitude of partial pictures, varying in 
all degrees of extension, from tlie history of complicated 
national combinations down to individual biography. 
The history of the present European nations is one of 
these partial pictures, the liistory of Saracenic power is 
another, the history of Grecian power is another, the his- 
tory of Roman power is another, and the history of our 
own republic is another. These pictures may be compre- 
hensive and grand in themselves, but in reference to the 
whole human race they are partial — mere fragmentary 
things — parts of that great picture of human fortunes which 
is drawn by the united pencils of history ami prophecy. 
From this rapid survey you perceive the extent of 
time over which history reaches, and the position it occu- 
pies in a general representation of human things. Though 
of itself incomplete, yet, when joined to prophecy, the 
two united fill out one picture. Each reaches away from 
the luminous present, the one into the misty future, and 
the other into the obscure past. But I do not design to 
dwell upon these general views. They have been pre- 
sented here for tlie purpose of giving an idea of the posi- 
tion occupied by our own country in tlie general course 
of human adiiirs. For, by drawing our attention away 
from the present, and looking to the whole career of 
mankind, past and future, we can form a more proper 
idea of the limits and extent of our field of labour, when 
we undertake to examine the origin, organization, and 
progress of the United States. The history of any single 
nation is merely a fragment of a more extensive picture. 
But in the vision of the ancient monarch, the little stone 
became a great mountain, and filled all the earth ; and 
in our vision the principles evolved in the origin and 
formation of our republic, give promise of extensive iniiu- 



20 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ence upon the fortunes of our race. We are therefore 
prepared to affix a proper vahie upon the events of our 
own history, by viewing tliem in connexion with the 
general current of human things. Standing on an emi- 
nence fi-om which the fortimes of our race may be sur- 
veyed, we would not see that the destinies of the world 
were immediately changed when John Hancock wTote 
his name to the Declaration of Independence ; but we 
would see that the doctrines and practices of our repub- 
lic were destined to exercise an extensive influence upon 
mankind ; an influence vastly greater tlian was indicated 
by the humble labours of the men who originated our 
government. 

Having taken this general view of history, and ex- 
amined the kind of farts it reveals, and the extent of 
time over which it reaches, we come to the next matter 
which we proposed to examine ; namely, 

CIVILIZATION. 

History announces the facts that have occurred in 
accomplishing the destiny and discipline of the human 
race. Parallel with these facts is the inferential fact of 
civilization. We may properly name it an inferential 
fact, because it discovers itself by way of inference or 
argument, rather than by express assertion. For exam- 
ple, when the ancient Tyrians are described as revelling 
in wealth, and clothed in purple and fine linen, the in- 
ferential fact is that tliey had a regular government — Hiat 
they were acquainted with the arts — that they had laws 
for restraining crimes against person and property' — in a 
word, that they were civilized. But how much of the 
internal life of the Tyrians is set forth in the express facts 
recorded in history ? Their individual cultivation, their 
social enjoyments, their domestic customs, their political 



CIVILIZATION. 21 

system, their political parties, their conviviality, their 
commercial regulations, their whole internal life, all tliese 
are matters of speculation. History is silent upon them ; 
yet these matters enter largely into the civilization of a 
people. 

You may perhaps ask, what is civilization ? what fact 
is expressed by the term ? I answer, that by civilization 
is understood the progress, the improvement of man, in- 
dividually, socially, and politically. But, without labour- 
ing at a definition, let us, for illustration, take the Esqui- 
maux Indian, and consider in what respects he is affected 
by a process of civilization. First, what is he as an 
individual 9 He is a grovelling savage, clothed in skins 
if clothed at all, living in filth, a barren intellect, a man 
in form, an ourang-outang in mind and action. 
^ Secondly, what is he socially 9 What is his condition 
as a member of society .'' He is a stranger to the enjoy- 
ments, to the ornaments, and elegancies of social life. 
Painting, music, poetry, sculpture, agriculture, com- 
merce, all are alike unknown to him. If he does occa- 
sionally make a mud figure or scream a wild song, he 
is not a proficient in sculpture, music, or other of the 
arts of cultivated life. If he have a squaw, she is a 
slave and not a companion. 

Thirdly, what is he politically 9 He has no political 
existence, lives under no organized government, has 
neither king, president, nor representative. His whole 
being, in all its relationships, is summed up when you 
say that he is a big-headed, short-bodied, oil- drinking, 
pagan Indian. 

Suppose now this Esquimaux be changed into a pro- 
perly educated Pennsylvanian ; wherein does he differ 
from his former self? He is changed, individually, so- 
cially, and politically. 



22 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Individually, lie is no longer a mere ourang-outang. 
He has now a cultivated mind, looks out upon a new 
heavens and a new earth, reads the handwriting of his 
Creator in the stars, in the plants, in the flowers, on the 
streams, and in his Bible. 

Socially, he enjoys the comforts of life, exchanges his 
cavern for a comfortable dwelHng, has a bed to sleep on, 
a table to eat from, a wife for a companion, and neigh- 
bours to visit. 

Politically, he is a member of a nation, lives in secu- 
rity, and exerts through his government an influence on 
distant quarters of the world. Commerce lays the trea- 
sures of the ocean at his feet, agriculture pours its fruits 
into his lap, science causes the elements of nature to mi- 
nister to his wants, and the arts surround him with arti- 
cles for use and ornament. This progress, this advance- 
ment, or rather this advanced condition of the Esquimaux, 
we call civilization ; and these changes constitute the 
civilizing process. 

Different theories have been adopted respecting the 
origin of this process, and different degrees of univer- 
sality and continuity have been ascribed to it. One 
theory starts with the human race as a mere horde of 
outlaws, roaming through the antediluvian world like a 
most wicked gang of sinners, and living, merely great 
muscular Cainite Indians. From this point of depression 
the race gradually rises, and marching ever onward, 
passes through the several grades of civilization. One 
series of nations has commenced the civilizing process 
where its predecessors ceased ; and thus, through the 
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, and Germans, 
there has been a gradual, unbroken advancement. This 
advancement will continue indefinitely, till in time the 



- . CIVILIZATION. 23 

race will attain the perfection of its nature, and evil 
cease to molest the world. 

This theory was promulgated at the opening of the 
French or great European revolution in the closing 
years of the last century, and has been defended on two 
grounds diametrically opposite. The originators of the 
theory, Condorcet, Paine, and Godwin, advocated the 
continued and indefinite progression of the race in civi- 
lization, but represented that progression as resulting 
from political institutions, from educated intellect, from 
a rejection of tlie restraints of religion, marriage, and 
similar opposing elements. After tliese wild, fanatical 
disorganizers had promulgated their theory, it was 
adopted by many Christian theologians, who likewise 
saw in the history of the past, and in the landscape of 
the future, a continued progression of the human race. 
But, unlike its infidel originators, the Christian advocates 
of the theory saw, in the continued advancement of tlie 
race in the ages that are past, the accomplishment of a 
Divine plan in the government of the world. Casting 
their eyes towards the future, they also saw the same 
visions which appeared to Condorcet and Paine ; but in 
opposition to those unbelievers, they represented man's 
progression on to perfection, as a result that w^ould be 
derived from a wider diffusion of Christianity, and from 
the operation of its regenerating and life-infusing power. 
The infidel and Christian advocates of this theory concur 
in the representation that the race has moved gradually 
and continually onward in the times that are past, and 
that it will go on improving in the times that are to come, 
till it finally arrives at the perfection of its nature. They 
differ, however, in regard to the influences which 
cause this indefinite improvement. They agree about 



24 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the fact, but not about the means which produce the 
fact. 

Antagonistic to this theory of progression is another 
that represents the human race either as stationary, or 
at most moving in circles of civihzation. The defenders 
of this theory find human nature the same in all ages 
of the world, from the fall of Adam to the present hour. 
According to them, there exists in the very moral and 
physical structure of man elements hostile to continued 
improvement, and they point to the history of the world 
to prove that there has been no transmission of civili- 
zation from one circle of nations to anotlier. Ac- 
cording to them, each nation, or circle of nations, grew 
up, and became civilized with its own peculiar civiliza- 
tion, and when its destiny was accomplished it passed 
away, in most cases merely 

•' Leaving a name at which the world grew pale, 
To point a moral, or adorn a tale." 

According to this theory, there have been as many 
civilizations as there have been circles of nations ; but 
the limits and duration of national existence have in 
general been the limits and duration of each peculiar ci- 
vilization. These theorists tell us that the civilization 
of a people springs from an internal element of life, an 
element that has its being in human nature, and is co- 
extensive with the human family ; an element that is 
always ready to develope itself, and which, when per- 
mitted to act, sets a nation, or circle of nations, in motion, 
and moves them, gradually up the hill of civilization. 
But when this cultivation has been carried to a certain 
point, adverse influences come to act upon it ; the jieople 
among whom it has appeared lose their national exist- 
ence, or become effeminate, or torn with civil commo- 



CIVILIZATION. 25 

tions ; the light of science burns out, the arts languish, 
die and are buried, and the world begins anew the work 
of improvement. 

If this theory be adopted, then one of the leading ob- 
jects of historical inquiry would be to ascertain the pe- 
culiar form of civilization in different nations, and recount 
the influences which set the civilizing element to work. 
But the question recurs, which of these antagonistic 
theories is admissible — which of them is sustained by the 
actual facts which have occurred. Has the whole 
world of mankind been steadily progressing in the work 
of improvement, from the time when the Most High di- 
vided the nations, to the present hour ? or has the human 
family been stationary, or merely making only here and 
there a flying visit to the Eden of civilization, and a 
speedy retreat to the backwoods of wild nature ? Which 
theory harmonizes the facts, the actual events that have 
occurred in the world ? or is there a middle ground, 
where the stationary, log-like theory of humanity meets 
the semi-infidel, semi-christian theory of progression? 
Let us see what the actual movements of mankind teach 
upon this subject. 

Civilization, as we have said, is a fact, and a fact 
of whose existence at different points in time we are made 
acquainted by the narrations of history. What then do 
the facts set forth in the history of the world enable us 
to infer concernino: the course of civilization ? Has it 
been progressive, or has it moved in cycles ? Or if it 
has moved in neither of these ways, how has it moved ? 
That we may answer these questions, let us take a 
rapid survey of the most remarkable developements of 
civilization that have been made in the world. Such a 
survey will also enable us to define the position of the 
United States among the nations, in regard to advance- 
c 



26 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ment, and to exhibit the origin and pecuHar elements of 
our own civilizatidn. 

I. The first form of civilization appeared in the north- 
east of Africa, and spread into the adjacent regions. 
The Ethiopian was the first branch of the human race 
that obtained any high degree of cultivation. Descend- 
ing from the mountains of Nubia and Abyssinia, this ci- 
vilization reached a high perfection in the valley of 
Egypt. From Egypt it spread into Arabia, Phoenicia, 
Nineveh, Chaldea, and covered the whole southwest of 
Asia. It also ran along the northern coast of Africa, 
and founded Carthage and the Numidian States. But 
the valley of Egypt was the centre of this civilization. 
There the human intellect received its first extensive de- 
velopement. There the sciences flourished, the pyramids 
rose, architecture, sculpture, painting, chemistry, me- 
chanics, and the ornamental and useful arts were culti- 
vated. The Egyptians became men in everything except 
in religion. They sent colonies to the adjacent coun- 
tries ; and Tyre, Nineveh, Babylon, Persia, and all the 
lands watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, became parts 
of the Egyptian circle of nations. We may, by way of 
distinction, call this the Egyptian Civilization. 

Herodotus and the Greek writers describe the civil- 
ized Egyptians as men with " dark skins and woolly 
heads." From the crocodiles and bulrushes of the 
Nile, these gentlemen of colour carried the arts and 
improvements of life to their colonies ; and if we pin 
our faith to the songs of Homer, the black Memnon, a 
prince from the southern side of the Mediterranean, was 
considered a beauty and " cut quite a figure" among 
the well-booted Greeks at the siege of Troy. All 
the circle of nations that filled Southwestern Asia and 
Northeastern Africa participated in this civilization. 



EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 27 

IIow far it extended among the " dark skins and woolly 
heads" in the interior of Africa, we know not. 

What became of this civilization ? Did the human 
race make this high eminence the foundation on which 
to erect a still higher tower, whose top should reach on 
upward to the heaven of perfection ? Not at all. The 
Egyptian civilization came to an end. The builders be- 
came confused ; and if you permit me to continue the 
same towering figure, I may add that they were scattered 
abroad upon the face of all tlie earth, and left off to 
build. In unfigurative language, the nations of South- 
eastern Asia and Northeastern Africa gradually became 
barbarians. They became, not civilly, but dvilizedly 
dead. Who inherited tlieir estate ? To what Texas is 
their civilization gone ? Near the Nile stand the pyra- 
mids, huge masses of clay and stone. Broken columns, 
old pieces of pottery, sphinx heads, and sherds of carved 
work are occasionally dug up, in the valley of the Nile 
and Euphrates. The rest is gone. Who got it? 

Such was the career of civilization in the Egyptian 
circle of nations, among whom 

" On Iccks and onions 't was profane to dine, 
And long-tailed cats took, rank divine." 

II. The second civilization that appeared was among 
the Greeks and Romans. This was the civilization of the 
white race. It is usual to connect the arts, sciences, 
and whole cuUivation of the Greeks, individual, social, 
and political, with those of the Egyptians. Cadmus car- 
rying the alphabet from Phoenicia (a colony of Egypt) 
to Greece, is the usual symbol of the Egyptian civiliza- 
tion migrating to the Caucasian or White race. Ce- 
crops too, that Daniel Boone of Greece, it is said, came 
from Egypt; and Pythagoras, Herodotus, and other 



28 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Greeks travelled in the land of the pyramids, and conser 
quently must have brought home with them all that was 
worth learning in the valley of the Nile. If they did 
not do so, they would have been better employed at 
home than in sauntering through Egypt, and gaping at 
the crocodiles, frogs and onions. In a word, the usual 
representation is that the civilization of the white race 
came by way of derivation from Egypt. 

But what does the historic record intimate upon this 
point ? It does not say that Africa went on a mission of 
civilization to Europe. If we believe the Greeks, their 
own civilization was spontaneous, aboriginal, quite as 
autoclitJionic as they believed themselves to be. It 
sprang from that innate element of developement which 
is implanted in human nature, and did not come by way 
of derivation from Egypt. Cecrops, that grasshopper 
king, was an autochthon, an aboriginal, and a good 
woodsman ; and Cadmus knew his alphabet, but sprang 
from among the grasshoppers of his own Greece. Such 
is the result of Greek teaching upon the origin of their 
civilization. 

If we compare the Greek with the Egyptian civiliza- 
tion, we are almost compelled to admit the aboriginal 
origin of the former. Individually, socially, and politi- 
cally, the Greek cultivation not only differed from the 
Egyptian, but had little in common with it. Individu- 
ally, the Greeks were philosophic, and the Egyptians re- 
ligious. Politically, the Greeks were republicans, and 
the Egyptians subjects of an autocrat. The social life 
of each was moulded by their political system and indi- 
vidual form of cultivation. Were we to sum up the 
respective characteristics of the two circles of nations, 
we would say that Grecian architecture, sculpture, paint- 
ing, manners, literature, in a word, the Grecian arts, 



GRECIAN CIVILIZATION. 29 

sciences, and life, differed radically from those of Egypt. 
How could such differences in all that relates to human 
cultivation exist, if Grecian civilization owed its origin 
and existence to the Egyptians ? If the Greek bore any 
resemblance, either individually^ socially, or politically, 
to the Egyptian, we might be persuaded that he obtained 
his whole composition, and derived his entire cultivation 
from Egypt. But as long as the general rule of nature 
exists, that like produces like, we must prefer the 
Hellenistic and aboriginal origin of Grecian civilization 
to its Egyptian derivation. 

But, dismissing the farther discussion of this point, 
we perceive that in the matter of extension the Grecian, 
like the Egyptian civilization, was proselyting in its ca- 
reer. We have said that the Eg}q:)tian civilization ex- 
tended itself over Northern Africa and Southwestern 
Asia. The Grecian civilization went on a similar mis- 
sion of proselytism. After cradling itself in the islands 
of the ^gean, in the south of Italy, on the shores of 
Asia Minor, and through Macedonia, it went forth with 
Alexander the Great, and spread itself over Asia. In 
consequence of his wild career, Grecian cities studded 
the mountains and the valleys from the Indus to the 
Bosphorus, and all the Eastern World became Greek. 
Even Egypt itself was recivilized by Grecian science 
and government ; and Syria, Persia, Asia Minor, and 
Mesopotamia, were added to the Macedonian Empire, 
and tasted of Grecian cultivation as well as of Grecian 
tyranny. Such was the meteoric rapidity of Grecian 
civilization over the East. But, by and by, the all-con- 
quering Roman began to look across the Adriatic, and 
Greece yielded to the iron power of the West. The 
great Macedonian Empire, after having been dismem- 
bered by the generals of Alexander, fell piecemeal to 
c* 



30 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the earth ; and in the extension of mihtaiy conquest 
and despotism, the Roman legion took the place of the 
Macedonian phalanx. But the proud Greek, with his 
Plato under his arm, curled his lip in cold disdain at 
the ignorance of his Roman conqueror ; bowed to his 
master, and taught him philosophy and the arts. The 
Roman Empire was enlightened with the blaze of 
Grecia's captive genius, and became the centre and cir- 
cumference of the civilized world. 

But, in time, adversity begai\ to attend the steps of 
this civilization. The Teutonic tribes came down 
from the north, and Goths, Vandals, Franks, and other 
divisions of men from the great Germanic family, 
trod down the western division of the Roman Empire. 
The eastern division of the colossal power, from its 
capital at Constantinople, still sent its lines of light into 
the world. But the Turk reached the Bosphorus ; his 
cannon battered down the city of Constantine ; the 
Greek fire was extinguished ; Greek philosophers be- 
came Turkish slaves ; and the civilization of two thou- 
sand years ceased to exist. 

III. A third form of civilization appeared in the remote 
East. For long centuries, individual^ social, and political 
improvement had been going forward among the tribes 
who had their habitations on the vast plains, and along 
the magnificent rivers of Eastern Asia. About two cen- 
turies and a half before the Christian era, these tribes 
were gathered into one consolidated Chinese empire, by 
a gentleman who rejoiced in the tough name of Chi- 
hoangti. His fame looms out from the mists of anti- 
quity, and a few scanty records tell, with Spartanic bre- 
vity, such facts as the following : 

Chihoangti built the great wall of China. 

Chihoangti, a high-toned federalist, united all the 



CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 31 

independent governments of China into one single em- 
pire. 

Chihoangti burned all the books and archives of his 
empire, that posterity might believe him the first of his 
race, the father of literature, and the founder of a mighty 
state. 

Chihoangti was the Justinian of his people, made 
good laws for them, hanged robbers, and patronized the 
fine arts. 

All this, and more, did Chihoangti do, two long cen- 
turies before the Christian era. Great is the renown of 
Chihoangti, the book-burning, wall-building Chinese 
federalist. 

For twelve centuries after him the Chinese people and 
government flourished in the enjoyment of a peculiar ci- 
vilization. Sculpture, painting, printing, and almost all 
the useful arts flourished among them. They cultivated 
literature and science, and enjoyed the luxuries and ele- 
gancies and ornaments of life. Individually^ socially^ and 
politically^ they were an improved people. If one false 
religion be better than another, they had the purest of 
all pagan religions. They cultivated the domestic rela- 
tions, and, by means of printing, diffused books on 
morals, agriculture, and the arts. 

This Asiatic civilization was not very proseljling in 
its tendencies. It was bounded on the north and north- 
west by Chihoangti's great wall, and on the south and 
east by the ocean. What connexion had it with the 
Egyptian or Grecian civilization ? How is it to be de- 
rived from them ? Did Chihoangti dig Greek roots and 
read Plato, or travel along the Nile? Or did this Chi- 
nese civilization spring from the internal element of im- 
provement that is ingrained into the very nature of man ? 
Whatever may have been its origin, the fact itself is well 



32 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

established, that while the Germanic barbarians were 
trampling upon the civilization of the white race in the 
West, the swarthy sons of Shem in the East were living 
" in high life" and enjoying their peculiar civilization. 
' IV. The fourth form of civilization had its locality in 
the peninsula of Hindostan. The lamp of history casts a 
dim and shadowy light upon the fortunes of the Hin- 
doos : a term which for brevity we may employ to desig- 
nate the hihabitants of India west and south of the basin 
of the Ganges. The Greek writers w^ho accompanied 
the expedition of Alexander, describe their manners, in- 
stitutions, and life, with an unsteady pen. From the 
wild visit of the Grecian conqueror down to the Moslem 
invasion in the tw^elfth century, mists and darkness rest 
upon the nations that were grouped within the geo- 
graphical limits of the Indus, the Himmaleh Mountains, 
and the Indian Ocean. The native records of events 
that occurred during this long interval, are meager, un- 
satisfactory, and insufficient to give any definite idea of 
the civilization that there existed. But by combining 
the poetic vagaries of the native writers with the revela- 
tions of the Moslem invaders and with the facts made 
known by the recent visits and conquests of Europeans, 
we are able to draw a picture, dimly defined indeed, but 
still a picture of the individual, social, and political con- 
dition of the Hindoos. From these sources we arrive at 
a knowledge of the fact, that a cluster of civilized nations, 
embracing many millions of inhabitants, long existed in 
Hindostan. No overtowering imperial government 
united this family of nations. They were separated, like 
the present inhabitants of Europe, whom they about 
equalled in number, into distinct and disconnected king- 
doms. But among all these kindred kingdoms, though 
diversified by local peculiarities, a similar- form of civil- 



HINDOO CIVILIZATION. 33 

ization prevailed. In government, in religion, in the 
arts, in the sciences, in their moral precepts, in their 
laws, they were a tolerably united circle of nations. 
Cut into divisions or castes, between which no sympathy 
and little communication existed, this circle of nations 
reached a high grade of improvement. In the arts and 
sciences they were masters, in laws they were just, in 
religion they were devotees of the most ardent kind ; and 
though their taste differed widely from that of Europeans, 
they had a literature that intimates a high degree of cul- 
tivation. Two peculiarities of their form of civilization 
deserve to be noticed, because they exercised an immense 
influence upon Hindoo life. 

The first of these peculiarities is the 'system of castes, 
the second is the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. 
The system of castes is ingrained into their political and 
religious institutions, and is an essential element in their 
practical life. The doctrine of the transmigration of 
souls is an article of faith which leads to important con- 
sequences. In their religious belief, transmigration is 
an evil which can only be avoided by rising in holy con- 
templation of the Divine nature to a purification of the 
soul. Hence, there is a tendency to a monastic life, 
and an actual devotion which is more earnest than in 
most other creeds. Their exertions to attain by pure 
contemplation an intimate intercourse with the Divine 
Being, gives their faith a mystic form. If purified by 
such a communion, the soul at death is free from the 
condemnation of going into a frog, a cow, or a monkey, 
but is absorbed into the Divine essence, and participates 
in the felicity of Deity. Hence the Hindoos strive, by 
meditation, to avoid the evil of transmigration. 

Such is the practical influence of the system of castes 



Si ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and of the doctrine of transmigration upon the civilization 
of the Hindoo circle of nations. 

It has been supposed that this circle of nations had 
in early ages a very intimate connexion with the nations 
who enjoyed the Egyptian civilization. Theorists have 
even represented India as the original home of the arts 
and sciences which blessed, and of the religion which 
degraded Egypt and its associate nations. The fact that 
a high grade of civilization existed in India is admitted. 
Its origin lies hidden in the remote past. All that we 
know concerning its commencement is, that when the 
curtain rises, the Hindoos are a cultivated people. But 
no man can positively affirm that the proselyting spirit 
of Hindoo civilization ever carried it far beyond the limits 
of Hindostan. A few straggling rays may perhaps have 
glimmered from it into Farther India ; but that the civili- 
zation of the Egyptian nations came from Hindostan, 
either by way of derivation or imitation, is an article of 
historic faith to which we are not in haste to subscribe. 

The existence of the Hindoo civilization at an early 
period of the world's history is admitted. But its origin, 
its migrations, and its proselytism are unknown. One 
fact we think will be admitted, and it is a fact in which, 
in the present discussion, we are much interested. The 
fact to which I refer is, that no other nation or cluster 
of nations, has made the Hindoo civilization the starting 
point for a higher, more refined, and more glorious cul- 
tivation. The influence of Hindoo civilization upon 
their Mahometan conquerors, does not constitute an ex- 
ception to this observation ; for the Mahometan invaders 
rose no higlier in cultivated life than the Hindoo nations 
which they conquered. 

From all the information given by history, by Hindoo 
poetry, and by the monuments still existing in the country, 



MEXICAN CIVILIZATION. 35 

the inference is legitimate that civilization was farther 
advanced in Hindostan at the invasion of Alexander the 
Great, than it is at the present day. If it originated not 
in an internal element of human improvement, we know 
not where to seek its origin. 

V. A fifth form of civilization appeared among the 
aboriginal Mexicans of Nortli America. The Mexican 
or Aztec people, when visited by the Spaniards, were 
in possession of a civilization of their own. Their in- 
dividual, social, and political condition, gave evidence 
of a high degree of improvement. Their religion, their 
laws, their arts, and their agriculture, all concur in 
proving that the Aztec people were not " untutored sa- 
vages." The fact of their civilization is admitted. But 
whence did it come ? What was its point of connexion 
with the civilizations that preceded it in time ? Strong 
efforts have been made to show a connecting link be- 
tween the Aztec and Chinese civilization, and the result 
is as follows : 

Some time in the thirteenth century of the Christian 
era, the Tartar tribes of Asia, disregarding Chihoangti's 
wall, invaded China, conquered it, and a Tartar prince, 
named and titled Cublai lOian, became emperor of 
China by conquest. Desirous of extending his sceptre 
to the isles of the sea, he despatched a gi'eat fleet to 
make war upon Japan. Chinese annals relate that a 
terrible storm destroyed the whole fleet, and drowned 
a hundred thousand men. But theorists have made 
another use of this storm. They represent it as car- 
rying Cublai Khan's fleet from Asia to America, and 
throwing the Tartar and Chinese w^arriors shipwrecked 
upon the Oregon coast. Those of them who escaped 
starvation and the sea, travelled southward, and settling 
round Lake Tezcuco, founded ttie Mexican Empire. 



36 ORIGIN OF THE UNITKD STATES. 

Such is the statement which connects the ancient Mexi- 
cans with China, and deduces from the conquering Tar- 
tars tlie cuhivation found by tlie Spaniards in North. 
America. 

Now it certainly requires a strong-sighted eye of 
historic faith to follow these Tartars and Chinese across 
sea and land, over mountain and river, till they aiTive 
in Mexico. But the most inexplicable part of tlie 
transaction is, tliat the Tartars and Chinese in Mexico 
lose tlieir language, literature, laws, arts, customs, and 
even their religion, and acquire a civilization tliat bears 
little or no resemblance to that of their relations in Asia. 
So very inexplicable does the aflliir appear, tliat I am 
compelled to leave it, being able to throw no more light 
upon it than that which shines out from the following 
exquisite poetic morceau : 

A Chinese emperor, a long time ago, 

Named Cublai Khan, 

A brave Tartar man, 

Wished to take Japan. 

But not a man 

Of all that Cublai Khan 

Shipped for Japan 

Ever came back again : 
They were all drowned, and the rest went to Mexico. 

"Where is now the Mexican civilization ? Wiio in- 
herited it and made it the starting point of a higher cnl- 
tivation ? Three centuries ago it was in its glory. But 
Montezuma and his race have no representative ; and 
the ancient Mexican life, laws, language, literature, arts, 
and government, have " gone to the tomb of all the Ca- 
pulets." 

VI. A sixth form of civilization appeared among the 
Saracens, or followers of Maliomet. By the eighth cen- 
tury of tlie Christian era, the Sai'acenic Empire was es- 



SARACENIC CIVILIZATION. 37 

tabllslied over Southwestern Asia, Northern Africa, and 
in the Spanish peninsula. This vast poHtical and re- 
ligious empire, extending from the Indus to Gibraltar, 
became the seat of the arts and sciences. A new civil- 
ization appeared in the world, and the intellect and all 
the passions of man received a mighty impulse. Music, 
painting, poetry, sculpture, literature, medicine, archi- 
tecture, and the various elegancies of a cultivated life, 
appeared among the followers of the Prophet. The 
Arabians, the children of the desert, became the patrons 
of the fine arts. But why need I detain you with a re- 
cital of tlie ornamental and useful acquisitions of the 
Saracens? Individually^ socially ^ and politically, they 
left their Esquimaux condition and became men — men 
in war, men in peace, and Mixliometans in religion. 

Shall we ask whence came this civilization ? Did it 
come from Aristotle and the Greeks, or were tliese Ara- 
bians civilized Saracenically, and by force of an internal 
element of improvement ? That their literati pored over 
some of the Grecian sages, and made barbaric transla- 
tions of them, is quite true. But it is exceedingly ques- 
tionable if the metaphysics of Aristotle and Plato, when 
rendered into Arabic, were promotive of Saracenic cul- 
tivation. The greater probability is that such studies 
rather retarded " the march of mind" among the Ma- 
hometans ; for the entire cycle of Saracenic thought, art, 
science, and life, was peculiarly their own, and had little 
in common with the philosophy of the Greeks. 

What became of this Saracenic civilization ? Did 
other nations make it the starting point of a higher cul- 
tivation ? No such thing occurred. When Divine Pro- 
vidence had served its purpose with the Saracenic 
Empire, it seemed also to be done with its brilliant cul- 
tivation. What was the fate of that splendid civiliza- 

D 



38 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tion ? You may trace its ghost eastward and northward. 
Eastward it took up its abode in the empire of Malimoud 
of Ghizni ; and when the Ghiznivede monarchy decayed 
and became absorbed into the Mogul Empire of India, 
its civihzation departed this hfe. Northward, the Arabic 
civihzation found a home among the Turks. With full 
faith in their genealogical knowledge, the descendants 
of Turk, the son of Japhet, had multiplied into vast 
hordes on the steppes of Asia, and overturned tlie 
northern divisions of the Saracenic Empire. The Sara- 
cens became to the Turks what the Greeks had been to 
the Romans, in imparting their civilization. But the 
Turk did not improve as the Roman had done. The 
genius of the Turkish Empire has not been favourable 
to an advancement or even preservation of the Saracenic 
cultivation, and its glories have become dimmed by its 
descent to the Ottoman. The last few centuries have 
witnessed its gradual decay. 

VII. The last form of civilization to which I shall call 
your attention, appeared among the Germanic tribes of 
Northern Europe. By the defeat of the legions of 
Varus, the Rhine and the Danube became the limits 
of the Roman power towards the Baltic. Over the im- 
mense tract that lies north and east of those rivers, the 
Germanic tribes roamed for long centuries, the real In- 
dians of the continent. Pagans in religion, and Esqui- 
maux in cultivation, they grew numerous, bold, and 
powerful. Then they came forth from their northern 
hive, and under the names of Goths, Francs, Saxons, 
Angles, Burgundians, &c., overturned the western divi- 
sion of the Roman Empire, and spread all over Western 
Europe. Having destroyed their common adversary, 
they warred upon each other ; and after centuries of 
fighting, mingling, conquering, and being conquered. 



GERMANIC CIVILIZATION. 39 

they became finally separated, and formed into the 
French, English, Spanish, German, and other European 
nations. This circle of nations, which may be called, 
by way of distinction, the Germanic family, exhibits the 
last and still existing form of cultivation in Europe. 
From this Germanic family of nations, has flowed the 
civilization of our own republic, into which has been 
conjrreofated the most desirable elements that have been 
developed in the progress of the Germanic civilization. 
These elements, incorporated into a system, and blended 
with those principles of government which have been 
reasoned out by enlightened patriotism and extended 
observation, form the basis and superstructure of our 
civilization. In our republic also, each member of the 
Germanic family of nations has its children : the French- 
man, the German, the Hollander, tlie Spaniard, the Bri- 
ton, and the Swede, all have their representatives in 
these United States. A branch of the Germanic civili- 
zation has been transported hither, where, planted by 
the wisdom of good men, and nourished by the blood 
of patriots, it gives promise of finer fruit than that which 
grows upon the parent stock. Another twig of it was 
carried by Peter the Great to Russia, where it has grown 
into a luxuriant Sclavonic tree. 

Whence came the Germanic civilization ? Shall we 
search for it among the rubbish and ruins of the Roman 
Empire ? Or shall we rather have recourse to the native 
informing element of improvement that belongs to our 
nature, and assert that the present nations of Europe 
were civilized Germanically, aboriginally, autoclithoin- 
cally ? Without stopping to discuss this question, we 
may be aided in forming an opinion upon it by observing 
a few of the characterizing elements of the civilization 
of the Germanic nations. Among these elements we 



40 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

may enumerate, first, the Christian religion ; next, tlie 
ardent love of liberty which prevails among these 
nations ; next, their arts, sciences, and literature ; and 
finally, their political organization. These elements mu- 
tually acting and reacting upon each other, have made 
the people of Europe and their descendants elsewhere, 
individually, socially, and politically, what they are. 

Now if " light sprang from the east," if the present 
civilization of the Europeans and their descendants is 
the resadt of a progressive improvement which began in 
India or Egypt, or somewhere else, then it would be a 
legitimate hiference that the elements of European civi- 
lization are a product, a refined and polished product or 
result of the civilizing elements of the nations that pre- 
ceded the present Europeans. 

Let us see where this leads us. Is Christianity a 
product or derived result of the paganism that preceded 
it? Is the ardent love of liberty among the Germanic 
nations, a product or derived result of the servility of the 
Asiatics and imperial Romans ? Are the arts, sciences, 
and literature of Europeans, and their political organiza- 
tion, derived fi'om the nations that preceded them ? To 
ask these questions is to answer them. Indeed, the re- 
cent history of the world teaches us that civilization 
cannot be imparted merely by infusion. The natives of 
the south seas melt away before the civilization of the 
Europeans. The Indians, the aborigines of America, 
obstinately persisted, and still persist in savage life, not- 
withstanding the numerous efforts made to civilize them. 
Who will say that the Greeks had as favourable oppor- 
tunities of receiving civilization from the Egyptians, or 
the Germanic people from the Romans, as the Indian 
tribes have had of receiving it from the Europeans? Yet, 
during an intercourse of three hundred and fifty years, 



INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON CIVILIZATION. 41 

not an Indian tribe has been civilized. Why is this, if 
civiUzation comes by derivation ? If the tendency of 
nations is to draw enlightened life from others, and to 
receive the elements of civilization by infusion, how has 
it happened that the American Indians will not let it be 
infused ? 

A wide survey of the history of the world informs 
lis that the wisdom which gave to the grain of wheat 
its laws of germination, established a similar law for the 
moral and intellectual developement of man. The grain 
of wheat thrown upon the barren rock gives no symptoms 
of life. But, when subjected to the influences of the 
genial shower, the sunshine, and the warm earth, it is 
then in circumstances adapted to develope its vitality, 
and the inhabiting life begins to act. After a manner 
in some respects similar, the civilizing element within 
us seems to act only when we are placed in circum- 
stances adapted to its developement. When these cir- 
cumstances exist, civilization seems to burst forth as the 
blade bursts from the germinating grain. It would be 
idle to say that this similitude is perfect in all points, 
and still more idle to attempt to show that there are 
points of view in which it fails. The only object for 
which it is introduced is to give some conception of that 
germinating origin which might be attributed to the seve- 
ral forms of civilization we have enumerated. 

But time presses, and other considerations demand 
our attention. Cast your eye over these several forms 
of civilization, and say what were the influences which 
operated through them all, and aided to give to the hu- 
man race these several developements ? Without pre- 
tending to enumerate all these influences, let me call your 
attention to two of them which stand out with much 
prominence, viz., Religion and Commerce. 



42 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Religion was an element and an influence common 
to all the civilizations. The Hindoo, the Egyptian, the 
Chinese, the Greek, and the Mexican civilizations were 
founded upon their respective forms of paganism : the 
Saracenic was engrafted upon the religion of Malioraet, 
and the Germanic civilization had its origin and progress 
in Christianity. Through all these developements the re- 
ligious element was most prominent and operative, and 
fixed a character upon the civilization. Not to go too 
much into detail, I will merely mention that Christianity 
was the most prominent influence that gave motion to 
the internal element of life among the Germanic tribes, 
raised them from barbaric rudeness, and changed them 
into Frenchmen, Germans, Britons, Spaniards, &c. 
Christianity infixed into this civilization its indelible cha- 
racter, and is necessary to its life, just as paganism in- 
fixed an indelible character into the other civilizations, 
and became inseparably connected with their existence. 
Let me illustrate this by referring to the Roman Empire. 
The civilization of the Roman Empire was connected in 
its origin and progress w^ith a pagan religion, that en- 
tered into the legislation, arts, sciences, manners, and 
entire life of the Romans. In the latter days of the 
empire, an attempt was made to cut out the pagan ele- 
ment from the Roman civilization, and substitute Christ- 
ianity in its place. But the Roman civilization died 
under the operation. It is immaterial whether we atti-i- 
bute this death to the tearing away of the pagan religion, 
or to the internal corruption of the empire, or to the 
might of external enemies, whose muscle and spirit 
grew strong as Roman paganism grew weak. The fact 
of which we speak is undeniable : namely, that the Ro- 
man civilization did not survive the paganism which ran 
through it. An exliibition had been made of a magni- 



INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE ON CIVILIZATION. 43 

ficent pagan civilization. The world had witnessed its 
adaptation to dcvelope the higher capacities of human 
nature. The Roman Empire had then fulfilled its mis- 
sion, and was no longer necessary in the general plan of 
moral discipline. It seemed too radically rotten to be 
purified even by the mighty purifying force of Christ- 
ianity itself; and Providence laid it aside, and raised 
up from the northern Germanic barbarians the present 
family of European nations and their descendants. Their 
civilization rests upon Christianity, and receives its cha- 
racterizing peculiarities from the Gospel. Many events 
in their history intimate, in a manner not to be misunder- 
stood, that Christianity is inseparable from the existence 
of this civilization. An examination of the other civil- 
izations would fiirther illustrate the ti'uth, that the reli- 
gious element is deeply and essentially ingrained into 
their existence. 

Commerce was another influence w'hich operated ex- 
tensively in producing the several forms of civilization. 
Whether confined to an internal traffic, as in China, or 
extending to all the world, as in Europe or America, 
commerce has worn off" the rough angles of nations, and 
imparted a polish to the human race. Motion, motion, 
eternal motion is the universal law of nature. The 
ocean purifies itself by agitation ; the earth moves on in 
its unceasing course ; the air moves in a whispering 
breeze or raging hurricane ; the waters flow in a mean- 
dering stream or raging torrent : all obey the universal 
law of "push along, keep moving." Man receives a 
benefit from his subjection to the same law. Commerce 
shakes together the scattered fragments of mankind, and 
by shaking polishes them. The present nations of Eu- 
rope derived their polish and release from barbarism in 
a great measure from commerce. When commerce 



44 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

came to the rescue, the middle and lower classes ac- 
quired weight ; and the commercial cities of the north 
and south changed and improved the individual, social, 
and political condition of Europe. The rough corners 
of the feudal system, or rather of the iron system, were 
worn off by the friction of traffic. Cities, and even states, 
became bound together by the tough cord of interest, 
and the civilization of the Germanic tribes was esta- 
blished. A similar influence was exerted by commerce 
on the civilization of the Greeks, Egyptians, Hindoos, 
Chinese, and Aztecs. Such was the influence of religion 
and commerce upon the several forms of civilization. 

From this rapid survey we have two results. The 
first result is, that the regular progression of civilization, 
and its derivation by one circle of nations from another, 
is a doctrine not very satisfactorily demonstrated by the 
actual events that have occurred ; nor, on the other hand, 
have these civilizations been all entirely disconnected with 
each other. A few scattered rays of light may have shone 
from one to another. But the laws, arts, sciences, forms 
of thought, and above all, the whole life of each of these 
circles of nations, appear to have had an internal, rather 
than an external origin. They came from an internal 
element of improvement that is infixed in our nature, 
rather than by infusion from without. The religion which 
lies at the basis of the Germanic civilization being of im- 
mediate Divine revelation, is not an improvement upon 
the systems of paganism that preceded it, as was repre- 
sented by the infidel originators of the theory of progres- 
sion. This element of our civilization, therefore, comes 
to us not by way of derivation from the other civiliza- 
tions, nor does it spring from within. Its origin being 
heavenly, it is exempted from the laws which govern 
merely human productions, but its influence upon civili- 



CIVILIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 45 

zatlon is the more powerful on account of its divine 
descent. 

A second result of this survey is a knowledge of the 
position occupied by our own republic. The civilization 
of the United States is a branch plucked from the Ger- 
manic tree, and planted here to undergo a new gi'owth 
and developement. Such is our position in the civilizing 
process, and such our relations to the several forms of 
cultivation that have appeared in the world. 

As our own civilization is the one to which our at- 
tention is to be directed in the ensuing lectures, let me 
in this connexion point out one or two of its peculiari- 
ties. Its foundation on Christianity warrants the hope, 
that the Germanic civilization in which we participate, 
will continue till the human race has reached the fullest 
developement of its nature. If paganism, adapted to the 
impure passions of man, could give life, symmetry, and 
duration to the civilizations of India, Egypt, Greece, 
and Rome, what limit in time or space shall hope assign 
to a civilization, which, like ours, is based on a religion 
adapted to the real wants of man ? The excellence of 
its religious basis warrants pleasing anticipations of the 
permanence and ultimate universality of the European 
or Germanic civilization. In this point of view, we, in 
common with our European brethren, differ from the 
other circles of nations which, in India, Egypt, and else- 
where, have been civilized paganally. 

But this Germanic civilization has itself some peculi- 
arities in our own country, that induce us to hope for it 
here, a higher degree of perfection than it has attained 
in the land of its birth. What are these peculiarities? 
What are the characterizing features of tliat part of the 
Germanic civilization which has been shipped to these 
United States? Look at our poUlical organization, and 



46 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

then answer. The elements of our individual and social 
cultivation are nearly the same as in Europe. But in 
our political organization, though we have in many points 
an affinity with our European relations, yet, in others, 
we differ widely from them. One of these points of 
difference is, that we have a representative democracy, 
while they adhere to the regal, or imperial, or aristo- 
cratic form of government. Another point of difference 
is, that we have no legally established religion, while they 
preserve a union of church and state. These ai'e two 
peculiarities which strongly characterize our republic. 
A word upon each of them. 

A political system without a legally established re- 
ligion is a peculiarity. I call it a peculiarity, because 
the system of church and state not only prevails in 
Europe, but has prevailed in all nations, and in all ages 
of the world. The Roman emperor was the high priest 
of the pagan ceremonial, and religion was an affair of 
state. The Hindoo nations, the Egyptian nations, the 
Grecian nations, the Mexican nations, and the Chinese 
nations, before and after their union under that prince of 
federalists, Chihoangti, all alike made religion an affair 
of state. And so has every nation that ever raised its 
head into the historic horizon, the United States alone 
excepted. In our republic we have separated the politi- 
cal from the ecclesiastical government. We are an ir- 
religious nation, but a most Christian people. We leave 
religion out of the terms of national union. We unite 
to secure the usual objects of a European state, matters 
pertaining to religion excepted. While Christianity lies 
at the foundation of our civilization, and is recognised 
as the guide and governor of our individual, social, and 
political conduct, its maintenance is left to the bounty 
of the people, untrammelled by national or state establish- 



DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED STATES. 47 

merits. Neither Its purity, its progress, nor its influence, 
have suffered by leaving it to the popular guardianship, 
free from the corrupting care of national or state legisla- 
tion. 

But, in the democratic element is found another pe- 
culiarity of our political organization. We look upon 
self-government as one of the means of moral discipline, 
one of the system of agencies by which the human race 
is to be raised, and its powers and capacities developed. 
Democracies were tried among the ancient Greeks and 
others, where civilization rested upon paganism. But in 
our own republic, the first grand trial has been made of 
democracy resting upon Christian civilization. I call 
curs the first Christian democracy, without forgetting 
Holland, Switzerland, Venice, and the Italian republics, 
so called. These were aristocratic, or oligarchic repub- 
lics, in which a few of the nobles, or most worthy citi- 
zens, managed the political machine. The popular 
masses, the undercrust, the bone and sinew of the 
country, had no influence, either directly or by way of 
representation. I do not say that the popular masses in 
these countries had no influence upon the government ; 
for the populace always has an indirect influence either 
in directing or restraining their rulers. But in the United 
States, the government was created by the popular masses, 
and is managed by them for their own benefit. The 
form of the government is a representative democracy. 
This representative form avoids the tumults of a great 
national mass meeting, and secures, at a small expense, 
all the benefits that could be gained by the actual pre- 
sence of the people themselves. By this means our re- 
public is a democracy, or government springing from 
the people, and managed by them. Nowhere else 



48 ORTOIN OF TITF. UNITED STATES. 

under the Christian civilization has such a form been 
tried. 

Democracy and a free religion are therefore the two 
j/ peculiarities of our republic. The influences and events 
which made these peculiarities so prominent in the 
United States will occupy our attention in the following 
lectures. The democratic element will be the one to 
which our discussions will be more particularly directed. 
These are the most remarkable developements of civil- 
ization that have been made in the world — this is the 
position of the United States among die nations, and 
here is the origin and peculiar elements of our own cul- 
tivation. 

But let us pass to the third and last element of hu- 
man history : namely, 

THE DIVINE DESIGN.' 

The admission of a plan, purpose, or design, is of 
essential service in connecting together facts in the ordi- 
nary conduct of men. We are accustomed to speak of 
human actions as springing from a plan or design ; and 
this plan or design of the intelligent mind gives unity 
and interest to the actions performed in its accomplish- 
ment. 

In like manner, the great events of the world ; the 
movements of nations ; the changes in the condition of 
masses of mankind, are clothed with new interest and 
unity when they are regarded as actions performed in 
the accomplishment of a plan or design of a Divine Go- 
vernor. But how do we arrive at a knowledge of Plis 
plan .'' The world moves on through ages ; generations 
pass over the stage ; nations come into being, and pass 
out of being; the great drama continues: but how do 
we become acquainted with the Divine design, which 



THK DIVINE DESIGN. 49 

rules and produces any one ]iaii of Uic world's great 
play? We may answer that we become acquainted with 
it by the same kind of reasoning which leads \is from 
the actions of a man to a knowledge of his di'sign. In 
merely human adiiirs we reason from the actions of men 
to dieir ])lans and pur})Oses, and a knowledge of their 
plans clothes their actions with new unity and interest. 
Take a historical example illustrative of our meaning. 

A Chouau renegade at Paris, St. Rejeant by name, 
in the times of the Consulate, purchased at one place a 
barrel, at another a horse, at another a (^art, and at an- 
other some powder, and ch-ove about tlu; city. Here 
were actions. A few evenings aftervviirds. Napoleon, 
going along the street in his carriage, narrowly escajicd 
being blown into the air by the exjjlosion of the infernal 
machine. Here was a result, a developement, which, 
being (-onnected with Uie Chouan carter, showed that 
his design was to blow up the hrst Consul. When this 
design became known, tlu^ actions of Uie assiissin in 
])urchasing the horse, powder, and other fixtures, as- 
sumed a new unity and interest. 

Apply this common mode of reasoning to the great 
events of the worki, and we are conducted towards a 
similar result in reference to the design of the Ruler 
of mankind. We recognise his existence, and we re- 
gard the general movements of mankind as his system 
of agencies for acctomplishing his ])urposes. We also 
see certain results of this system of agen(;ies, aiul from 
these results we infer His design or j)lan ; and we may 
then use this knowledge to give unity to the great 
movements and events of the world. 

To particularize an example illustrative of this, take 
the history of our own country. In North America, a 
republic has been establislieil, where the govertunent 

E 



50 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and institutions are of popular origin. Here is a result 
from which, without looking farther, we may infer the 
design of the Divine Governor of the world in reference 
to our country. We infer that he designed to produce 
this result, and so to order the movements of mankind 
that the Christian civilization of Europe should be 
transplanted to this western continent, and be here per- 
mitted to develope itself under a poi)ular government 
and free religion. We may employ this design to give 
unity and interest to the innumerable facts or events 
connected with the discovery and colonization of Ame- 
rica, and with the liberation and organization of our re- 
puljlic. 

Adapting our language to the results already reached 
in our history, we may say that there is abundant evi- 
dence of a Divine design and plan to establish a govern- 
ment in our own country, on the basis of democracy 
and Christian civilization. We need not say, however, 
that this result was the one ultimately designed by Di- 
vine Providence in reference to our country, and, that 
for this alone, he brought about its discovery, coloniza- 
tion, and liberation. The establishment of democratic 
government here, may be merely preparatory to some 
grander consummation, in which the moral Governor of 
the world may cause our political system to eventuate. 
But this consideration excites a still greater interest in 
the events of our history. The immediate design of the 
Chouan St. Rejeant (a pretty hard kind of a saint), in 
procuring his old cart, horse, powder, and other appa- 
ratus, was to blow Napoleon " sky high." But the 
accomplishment of this design was merely a step prepara- 
tory to the overthrow of the consular government, and 
the restoration of the old line of French kings. 'J'his 
remoter, this ulterior design increases the interest which 



THE DIVINE DESIGN. 51 

is excited by the Choiian's actions. In like manner the 
establishment ofour government and popuhir inslitiitions, 
may be merely a step ancillary or preparatory to a 
grander result in the moral discipline of the race. But 
this ulterior and grander ellect only imparts a more in- 
tense interest to the events of our history. 

In thus inferentially travelling from results and the 
means by which they are brought about to the design 
which lies back of them, we are merely treading on the 
threshold of a historical theology. From the adaptation 
of means to ends in the organization of material things, 
a natural theology is constructed. The tongue of the 
woodpecker is adapted to its mode of life — the blubber 
of a whale wrapped like a cloak round its body enables 
it, though a warm-blooded animal, to live in the icy 
seas of the north where its food abounds. And so 
through the whole world of nature, the adaptation of 
means to ends, and the harmony of one organ with 
another, are facts by which we ascend to a knowledge of 
a Creator who designed^ and j^l^nned^ and arranged all 
these things. From this source we have a natural tlie- 
ology. 

We might, in a similar manner, by pointing out the 
adaptation of means to ends in the accomplishment of 
great results in the career of the human race, construct 
a historical theology. But this is not within our plan. 
Our only object at present is to state the princi})le 
of design, and to employ it hereafter, as far as may be 
convenient, to give unity to the events connected 
with the discovery, colonization, and liberation of our 
country. 

We have thus attempted to pass in review before you 
the three main elements of all human iiistory, and to ex- 
hibit the connexion and correlation of our republic with 



52 ORIGIN OF THE UNITKD STATES. 

Uie nalions wlilch have preceded it, or arc coexistent 
Willi it. We can now proceed lo an exaininaiioii oi' 
llie evciils and itidiieiiees which C()nlril)uled lo its or^-a- 
iiizatioii. Beiore doiii^ so, howi-ver, permit me to stale 
the idea, that the ])olitical and social institutions of a 
country are never so correctly understood or appreciated 
as when seen in the lif^ht of their historic ()ri<i;in. '.rrue 
it is, that in fijoinf; back to the discovery, colonization, 
and liherallon of our country, we brush a little amonjjj 
tlie dust and cobwebs oC anti(iuily. Tiie voyaf^e of 
Columbus, the laiidini; of the Pilj^rims, and even the 
chivalrous deeds of the Revolution, are events fast re- 
cedin<jf into the mists of past time. A modern anti(iuily 
is settlint^ down upon our country: but the tleeds done 
in tlie times of this aiifKiuily are intimately connected 
with our present political or<;anization, and are the ac- 
tians performed in aecomplishmi-nt of a dcsl<j;n of sub- 
mittint!,'a nunierous peo|)le lo llie discii)]ine ofseK-j^overn- 
menl. We look back to the Puritans at IMymoulh,to the 
Hollanders on the Hudson, to the Swedes on the Dela- 
ware, and lo other early fathers of our land, and we 
sometimes think of them as of an(;ient ])atriarchs wlio 
wore (|ueues or powdered wifj^s, and bi()a(l-l)rimmed 
hats, and wiio were accustomed, on a tian(|uil summer 
evenint^, to sn\oke their ])ipes and read their Mibles. 
But it is amon<r those early fathers of our country that 
we are to seek the origin of tiie s^reat social and political 
buildinpf which now gives us shelter. 

And even if the t!venls of this organizing time were 
more remote, so long as we can connect them with our 
])resent national existence or national honour, Ihey will 
be lo us millers of thrilling interest. For no matter 
what a iioary anli(iuily may settle down upon (<vents, if 
they are connected with the origin, or honour, or gl<My, 



ORIGIN OF mSTITUTIONS. 53 

of a people, they -will be dear to the hearts of that peo- 
ple. For example, to the Jews through all their mvtional 
and dispersed existence, the events of their early history 
have always been matters of intense interest. Joseph 
in Egypt ; Moses in the wilderness ; Joshua in Canaan ; 
the lightnings of Sinai ; the trials in the great and ter- 
rible wilderness ; the frogs ; the flies ; the fire ; the hail ; 
the blood; the awful darkness; and the midnight cry: 
these are tlie historical phenomena which shine out 
everywhere all over Jewish History. The whole Divine 
record teems with them ; and the Jew, in all his wan- 
derings and captivities, looks back to them as glorious 
events illustrating his social inslitutions and religious 
faith. In like manner, an Englishman of the present 
day goes back fourteen hundred years to find, among 
the long-bearded Saxons, the origin of the present Eng- 
lish government and English institutions : and as he 
runs his eye over his country's history, he finds abundant 
matter of interest in ancient as well as in recent events, 
connected with his nalional existence and national ho- 
nour. He rejoices that tlie first as well as the last fire 
of English artillery upon French troops at Crescy and 
at Waterloo were alike fotal to French glory. How 
could the Englisliman comprehend the institutions of his 
country without knowing something of their origin ? 
How could he ap})reciate his national honour without 
knowing the feats performed in its preservation ? 

A German likewise finds matter of rejoicing and in- 
struction in the ancient events of his fiitherland. In the 
history of his ancestors he sees the origin of many of 
his institutions ; and as he traces the stream of events 
from the obscurities of antiquity down to the brighter 
illuminations of modern times, he finds much to instruct 
and interest him. And as he runs his eye over the his- 

E* 



54 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

toric map, he pauses at the field of Leipsic and exults 
in remembrance of the grand battle of nations, whose 
awful thunders, under the walls of that ancient city, an- 
nounced to fighting frightened Europe 

" Germany is free I" 

Such events cut deep into the political and social or- 
ganization of a country ; and without farther illustration 
we may say, that by a survey of events which origi- 
nated, moulded, and established the institutions of a 
country, we acquire the most correct knowledge of the 
government and whole life of a people. To the matters 
then connected with the origin and organization of our 
republic I invite your attention. After we have exa- 
mined the influences and events which produced its or- 
ganization, we will present you a view of its practical 
operation. Deriving a knowledge of our institutions 
from this source, you will be prepared to appreciate their 
excellence and form rational hopes of their permanence. 



LECTURE II. 

PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 

The events of our history to be viewed as agencies in the cstabhshnicnt 
of democratic goveriuueiit— The period of discovery and explora- 
tio,i_Tlie discovery rendered inevitable : I. By the political con- 
dition of Europe ; II. By the state of the arts and sciences— 'i'he 
discovery in what respects accidental — Motives which led to the ex- 
ploration of the country : I. The desire to acquire new territory— 
The rule of discovery ; II. The hope of finding a westward passage 
to India — Attempts to discover such a passage — The hope of finding 
gold in America- Fabulous localities — Expedition of De Soto. 
III. The desire to plant colonies in America— Attempts to colonize 
the valley of the St. Lawrence— Distribution of these several motives 
of exploration among the English, the Spaniards and the French- 
Connexion of these discoveries and explorations with our Republic. 

In the present lectures we wish to use the term de- 
mocracy in no contracted or party sense, but in its more 
original and enlarged signification, where it means a 
government of the people, or rather a government origi- 
nating with the people and conducted by them. A de- 
mocracy, in this sense of the term, is established in 
North America. Here is a fact ; a result ; an end ac- 
complished ; and a fact with which we have at present 
much to do. 

We have already stated that the admission of a Divine 
plan, in pursuance of which the great movements among 
mankind have taken place, gives unity and increased in- 
terest to the facts of history. If we suppose that the 
establishment of democratic government in North Ame- 
rica was an end or result divinely appointed, we may 
look forward from this design and examine how the 



56 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

events in our history co-operated to produce our repub- 
lican organization. Viewed in this manner, the occur- 
rences connected with the discovery and colonization of 
the country, and witli its political changes and republican 
government, are agencies by which a design or plan is 
accomplished, and they have consequently the unity and 
interest which belong to means wisely adapted to an 
end. Let us look therefore at the leading events of our 
history, and examine them as prospective contrivances, 
as focts and methods and expedients which pointed for- 
ward in time to the production and developement of 
our system of self-government. 

For this purpose we will first examine the events and 
circumstances connected wuth the discovery and explora- 
tion of North America ; we will then analyze the in- 
fluences and means by which it was colonized ; we will 
next review the causes of the American Revolution, 
and the process of our political organization ; and 
finally, we will inquire into the growth, practical opera- 
tion, and territorial extension of our repul)lic. By such 
an examination you will perceive a great diversity of 
events and influences all directed as if by a ruling de- 
signing mind, and all converging to a single point and 
contributing to the permanent establishment of demo- 
cratic institutions and government. 

According to this arrangement, we are first to exa- 
mine the events, and circumstances, and influences, con- 
nected with the discovery and exploration of the country ; 
and this will form the subject of the present lecture. 

The period of discovery and exploration commenced 
with the voyage of Columbus (A. D. 1492), and ex- 
tended through nearly one hundred and twenty years. 
His expedition broke down the ocean barrier that di- 
vided the Western continent from Europe, revealed 



PKRIOD OF DISCOVKUY. 57 

the new world to the old, and opened an extended field 
for the eullivation of tlie human race. The northern 
anliijuaries have recently attributed to Iceland the honour 
of (hscoveriiif^- Anieric^a. It is in substance asserted Ihat 
about tour iuuuh-ed years before the exj)edit ion of Colum- 
l)us, adventurers from that island sailed alonf^ the coast 
of Labrador, and came as far souUi as tlie harbours of 
New York, perhaps to the waters of the Delaware iuid 
Chesapeake. Like the spies to the jironused land, they 
found luxuriant clusters of grapes, and conimeuiorated 
tlieir discovery, by naming their settlement in the 
country from its luscious fruit, Vinland. Jhit where was 
Vinliuid ? Where now grow the rich clusters of grapes ? 
The Icelanders may have made expeditions, but their 
voyages to America, if ever made, resulted in no benefit 
to tbe world. 'I'liey gave to JOuropc; no knowledge of 
Americii. This great continent, with its luxuriant vege- 
tation, its high mountains, its rivers, lakes, prairies, and 
dusky Irulians, still lay concealed from the old world; 
and even Icelaiul forgot, if she ever knew, its existence. 

Other speculators have connected America with Asia 
by the way of Behring's Straits, and iiave brought among 
other Asiatics the ten tribes of Israel, on a long journey 
across the Rocky Mountains, ;uid clianged them into 
Mohicans, Mohawks, and Kickapoos. A poor reward 
for such a long tramp ! 

Others have peopled America from Asia by way of 
the Japan Islands, and for this purjjose have pressed into 
their service the expedition of the notable Cublai Khan, 
whose story you know. These expeditions to America 
by way of Iceland on the northeast, or by way of Beh- 
ring's Straits and Japan on the northwest, though they 
may have occurred, yet they never made known to the 
old world the existence of Ann rica. That knowledge 



58 OllIGIN or TIIK UNITED STATES. 

Wiis foinnuiniciilccl by llio expeditions of C()luinl)us and 
Ills lollowers. To lliein and to them exclusively lielono's 
llie honour oi discoverinf^' and making known to Kuroj)e 
tJiat there was a western continent. 'J'lie condition of 
Soutlicrn and Western Europe rendered this discovery 
towards the close oftiie fifUcntli century almost inevita- 
ble. If Christopher Columbus had not made his voyage, 
some other Columbus must soon liave shown the way to 
America. My meaning will he illustrated by referring 
you lo tlie condition of tiie nations, and to the slate of 
the arts and sciences in Kuro])e at the close of the 
fifteenth century, when the discovery was made. 

I. As it respects Ihe political condition of the lOuro- 
]i('aii nations, we know that towards the close of tlie 
fifteenth century, tliey obtained a national existence, and 
received a national organization. 

Euroi)e underwent some veiy im])ortnnt political 
changes in tlu; latter half of the fifteenth century. Prior 
to that time tiiere were no vations in Europe, according 
to the present acceptation of the term. We think of a 
nation as of a body of peo|)le dispersed over a country 
more or less extensive, and bouiul together in subordina- 
tion to a single government, and ha\ ing usually similar 
institutions and laws, and the sam(> common interests. 
]Jut ])reviousIy to tlie latter half of the lil'leeiith century, 
tluM't; were no such nations in Europe. 'I'liere were 
Englishmen, Frenchmen, (Germans, Portuguese, Spa- 
niards, &,c., but no nations corres])onding to our present 
views of nationality. Feudal nobles tlivided Europe 
into innumrrablc j)rincipalities. Sj>ain was parcrllcd 
out into little ])rincedoms, numbering twenty or more. 
l''rauc(> was divided among jH'lty dukes and counts, 
each independent of the rest. (Germany had its herzogs 
and lamlgrafs, each of whom had his territories, where 



POLITICAL CONDITION OK EUROPE. 59 

ho ruk'cl, " luoiiiirrh oi" all lii' surveyed. " J']ii<;I;iii(1, 
tliough more united tliau the oUier ])arts ol' IOuroi)e, had 
her earls and dukes, and counts pahitine, who swayed 
their Uttle sce})tres over (heir narrow possessions, Por- 
tuf^al had also its powerl'ul nobility, who ruled its dii- 
ferent districts. And last, hut not least, the l)ish()ps 
all over Kurope became inde[)i'iulent princes, and had 
tlieir vassals, their courts, and their wars. Tn some of 
tlicse countries a <;reater nobleman elainu'd the title ol" 
kinf2^ or em{)eror, received an empty homa<;e from some 
ol" his fellow-nobles ; but then- his kingly authority ended. 
'J'liere were bishoprics and dukedoms, :nid earldoms and 
counties, with castles for head-cpiarters, but there were 
no nations; all was local, partial, and unnational. 

This condition of things bej;an to chanoCj and by a 
series of events sing(darly coiiici(l(Mit over ail Kurojx', 
towards the close of the iifteenth century, France, Spain, 
Germany, Enj^land, and Portui^ul, became each united 
into a single nation. In each of these countries a single 
nobleman obtained llie ascendency, and brought the rest 
into subjection to his authority. I say that in each of 
these countries a single nobleman did this; for from the 
death of Charlemagne (A. D. 814) to the jieriod of which 
we speak, we need take no more account of kings and 
emperors than of dukes and counts. 'I'he royal tides 
existed in some of these countries; but they were titles 
without j)ower, shadowy rather than substantial. 

Kach of these countries was, however, by one cause 
and another, towards tlie close of the fifteenth century, 
subjected to a single anlhorily. In each country j)o\ver 
became centralized round the throne of a prince, and in 
each there came forward a Chihoatigti, a great federalist, 
who broke down the little principalities and united them 
into one consolidated nation. In Enghmd, Henry VII., 



60 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

in France, Cluirlcs VI FI., in Spain, Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, in Germany, Maximilian I,, and in Portugal, Don 
Henry, became the heads of authority, and nations were 
formed. The Italian cities of the south and the German 
cities of the north, became partially snbordinate to one 
or the other of these principal nations. This fusing and 
smelting together of the dissociated fragments of Eu- 
ropean power into nations, occurred immediately prior 
to the voyages undertaken for the discovery and ex])lo- 
ration of America. It seemed to be necessary to bring 
together into larger masses tlie disconnected particles of 
power before America was presented to the old world. 
Tins national organization brought together the force 
necessary to impel intellect, enterprise, and commerce 
•westward. Such a concentral ion of European power was 
one step towards the inevitable discovery of America. 

Another circumstance which deserves to be noticed 
in this connexion was the fact that just at this time tJie 
doctrine of the divine right of kings came to be an ar- 
ticle in the political creed. In the local and fragmentary 
divisions of power during the feudal or middle ages, 
tliere was a pervading element of democracy. But it 
was democracy without extended government ; demo- 
cracy approaching the wild indepentlence of tiie Indian 
tribes. Immediately u})on the sid)jection of the nobility 
to the royal authority, the divine right of kings was pro- 
mulgated ; and Providence, as if to open the door of 
escape from such arrogated power, prepared tlie disco- 
very of America, and pointed out an asylum for liberty. 

II. The state of intellectual improvement towards the 
close of the fifteenth century-, was also entirely favourable 
to the discovery of America. The arts and sciences were 
at that time at a point of advancement where they could 
be pressed hito the service of maritime enterprise. 



STATE OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 61 

■I 

Southern Europe was the region where this advancement 
was most apparent. Commerce had there put forth its 
humanizing force, and Spain, Portugal, and the Italian 
cities, liad attained a higher cultivation than the states 
and cities in the north of Europe. The magnetic needle 
had become known, and was applied to the purposes of 
navigation. Some general notions also were afloat re- 
specting the figure of the earth. Learned men began to 
suspect most violently that it was spherical and not Hat. 
Sciences, or rather speculations, in themselves visionary, 
had, by putting intellect in motion, caused it to stumble 
on many important discoveries. Astrology had directed 
attention to the stars, and astronomy was studied, that 
men might become more expert astrologers. Many of 
the Portuguese and Spanish princes wishing to get the 
most information possible out of the heavens, liberally 
patronized astrology, and astronomy reaped the benefit 
of their observatories. All sciences and arts, and indeed 
all things relating to life and speculation, are closely 
linked together. Astronomy and the magnetic needle 
came to the help of the sailor, and ships ventured out on 
the ocean with no other guide than the quivering steel 
in the compass-box ; and the magnetic fluid furnished the 
means for effecting great changes in the world. Portu- 
gal took the lead in maritime adventure ; and, from Lis- 
bon, Captain Diaz sailed southward till he passed the 
Cape of Good Hope. The princes, the divine-right men 
of the newly formed nations of Europe, were also on the 
alert, and eager to make discoveries by sea. Feudalism 
had enjoyed its iron reign — the crusades were abandoned 
■ — tilts and tournaments were going out of fashion — com- 
merce, printing, gunpowder, and Martin Luther, were 
about to shake the nations of the earth. Science was 
bursting the cerements of its medieval chrysalis state, and 



62 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

trimming its wings to soar away over the oceans and 
into the heavens. Such a state of science, art, and go- 
vernment, rendered the discovery of America inevitable. 

In this condition of Western and Southern Europe, 
Columbus was travelling from kingdom to kingdom in 
the fond hope of inducing a crowned head to furnish 
him with ships and sailors to explore the ocean. After 
being politely bowed away from all the palaces of Eu- 
rope, he gained the ear of the Spanish sovereigns, through 
the mediation of John Perez, father confessor to Queen 
Isabella. Thanks, father Perez, for that timely inter- 
ference ! Democracy owes you a statue. Will not some 
kind artist chisel you out in marble as you stood pleading 
with Isabella to send Columbus floating away westward 
on the unkno^vn Atlantic ? The red man may curse you, 
but you did well. Good bye, Senor Perez. 

Many grand discoveries have been, so far as human 
intention is concerned, purely accidental. The alche- 
mists, for example, made valuable discoveries in chemis- 
try. Why? Or how? By proceeding according to 
system ? Not at all. They imagined that there was 
some process by which gold could be formed out of other 
substances ; and to discover this process they fried, 
roasted, and stewed every beautiful and filthy thing in 
the world of matter. What was the result ? They 
cooked out many useful elements from vegetable, animal, 
and mineral substances. But these out-cookings — these 
decoctions, if you prefer a Latin derivative, were merely 
accidental. They were not the results at which the al- 
chemists aimed ; but Providence so directed the labours 
of the gold-hunters, that the splendid science of chemis- 
try was originated by their experiments. 

The discovery of America was, in like manner, ac- 
cidental. By saying tliat it was accidental, I mean that 



THE DISCOVERY. 63 

it was not the result of system directed to the discovery, 
by those who engaged in the undertaking. 

America was a fruit, a gem ; a thing hit upon in a 
tentative . attempt to find out something else. It was 
discovered and explored in the attempt to reach India 
by sea. Commerce had long been carried on with the 
east by way of the Mediterranean, the Isthmus of Suez, 
and the Red Sea. The Venetians, by means of this 
traffic, had literally clothed themselves in purple and 
fine linen, and Venice was the commercial emporium of 
Europe. The route to India round the Cape of Good 
Hope was yet unknown. The Portuguese captain, 
Diaz, had merely ventured to the western line of the 
Indian Ocean, and then returned. If the earth be a 
sphere, said Columbus, by sailing westward from Spain, 
one must arrive in India. Here was the prominent geo- 
graphical truth of American discovery. The induce- 
ment presented to the Spanish sovereigns to favour the 
enterprise of Columbus, was not the discovery of a new 
continent, but the discovery of a short western passage 
to India. Marco Polo had told of a rich country in 
the east, called Cathay, where jewels, gems, and gold 
abounded ; and imagination coming to tlie aid of the 
traveller Polo, represented all the Cathayans to be 
bankers, with houses full of pure solid shining metal. 
To find out a short passage to Northeastern China, where 
these hard-moneyed gentlemen had their cash, was the 
ardent desire of the avaricious Europeans. The ope- 
rating motive held out by Columbus to Isabella was the 
discovery of Cathay by sailing towards the west ; Fa- 
ther Perez electioneered for him on this idea, and Isa- 
bella finally set him afloat for the purpose of discovering 
a water highway to Cathay. The discovery of x\merica 
was, as you know, the consequence. But when Columbus 



64 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

returned to Spain, the land he had discovered was sup- 
posed to belong to the eastern coast of Asia ; the west- 
ward route to India was supposed to have been found 
out, and the newly discovered lands were named the 
Indies, and the natives were called Indians. When 
subsequent voyages corrected the mistake, the epithet 
West was attached to the Indies of Columbus, and the 
world became acquainted with the West Indies. 

Such was the accidental discovery of this western 
continent. Providence had provided from afar the 
means by which it was accomplished ; and the discovery, 
though accidental in respect to the plans and designs of 
men, was the result of a system of agencies established 
by Him. 

But Columbus was not the first who discovered the 
continent. He had merely landed at some of the West 
India islands, from which he returned to Spain. The 
honour of discovering the main land belongs to the Ca- 
bots. John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, sailing under 
the patronage of Henry VII. of England, wa're the first 
European navigators who touched the coast of America. 
Their landing-place was far north of the boundaries of 
the United States, among polar snows, icebergs, and 
natives clothed in skins. They first touched land on 
the coast of Labrador, and sailed southward as far per- 
haps as the Carolinas. 

Sebastian Cabot, under the patronage of the same 
sovereign, made subsequent voyages to the coast of 
North America, and other navigators speedily followed 
in his wake. The English king had patronized these 
voyages partly in the hope of reaching the East Indies 
by a westward route ; but the countries discovered dif- 
fered so exceedingly from the imaginary pictures of the 
rich Empire of Cathay, and from the fancied luxuriance 



MOTIVES TO EXPLORE. 65 

and golden coasts of Oriental Asia, that princes and 
seamen began to believe that the lands reached by Co- 
lumbus, the Cabots, and others, were new lands which 
had never before been visited by any Christian people. 
Amerigo Vespucci published to the world the first de- 
scription of the Western Continent, and by doing so, 
affixed his name to the New World, and gained a cele- 
brity that may outlast the fame of Columbus and the 
Cabots. These princely discoverers had, however, a 
merit that could not have been made more known even 
by naming a continent in their honour. They had a 
leading part to act in the career of the human race, and 
they are prominent figures in the general landscape of 
humanity. Their renown is as imperishable in America 
as it would have been in Columbia or Cabolia. 

The discovery of America revealed, we say, a new 
scene in the drama of the human race, and was the first 
of those series of providences which gave life to our re- 
public. But the discovery itself, and the subsequent 
explorations of the country, were made under the influ- 
ence of three prominent motives, which had selfishness 
for their common origin. The first of these motives was 
the desire of the European sovereigns to acquire new 
territories ; the second was the hope of finding a west- 
ward route to India, or to some Cathay abounding in 
gold ; and the third was the wish to plant colonies. Let 
us examine a little mto the operation of each of these 
motives. 

I. In regard to the first, namely, the desire of the 
European sovereigns to acquire new territories, we may 
say that it had a very extensive influence upon the ex- 
ploration and subsequent fortunes of America. When 
it was ascertained that the lands found by Columbus, tlie 
Cabots, and others, were not part of Eastern Asia, the 

F* 



66 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

maritime nations of Europe commenced a race for pri- 
ority of discovery. France, Spain, Portugal, and Eng- 
land, were, at the close of the fifteenth century, the 
commercial nations of Europe. Portugal was first, then 
came Spain, while England and France followed at a 
■respectful distance. The lordly Venetians, who, during 
the middle ages, monopolized the traffic of the Mediter- 
ranean, were yielding in enterprise to the newly orga- 
nized kingdoms of Western Europe. These kingdoms 
were active in pursuing discoveries in tlie New World ; 
and their haste was the greater on account of the rule they 
adopted respecting the right of discovery. The nature 
of this right of discovery and its origin are, perhaps, not 
so generally understood as it ought to be. Its influence 
on American affairs was very extensive, and it still con- 
tinues to be the guide in determining the boundaries of 
European claims to the soil. Permit me to state the 
principles of this right, as it was an extensively operating 
element in fixing the territorial limits of our republic, and 
in giving direction to the exploration and colonization 
of the country. 

The European nations, early in the period of disco- 
very, established the rule that whatever nation discovered 
a new country, and in a reasonable time took possession 
of it and settled it, was entitled to that countiy to the 
exclusion of other Europeans. This rule became part 
of the European law of nations. Why ? It was neces- 
sary to recognise some principle by which discoveries 
should be regulated ; and no rule seemed more free from 
embarrassment than the one which provided that the na- 
tion discovering and taking actual possession of an island 
or tract of country, became entitled to that co\intry to 
the exclusion of others. Spain recognised this rule, and 
so did Portugal, England, and France. This rule, when 



THE RULE OF DISCOVERY. 67 

applied to the continent of America, directed that the 
nation which discovered a bay or river, and took actual 
possession of it, became entitled to the land watered or 
drained by the river. For example, when Hudson dis- 
covered the Hudson river, Holland, in the employment 
of whose subjects he sailed, claimed the region drained 
by that river. In like manner, when the French disco- 
vered the Mississippi, they claimed the entire basin of 
that river. Hence every spring that bubbled up west 
of the Alleghany Mountains was within the French dis- 
covery. The Ohio, the Missouri, the Tennessee, the 
Illinois rivers, wdtli the thousand other tributaries, scat- 
tered from the head springs of the Alleghany to the 
distant fountains in which the Red River rises, all come 
within the limits of the discovery. The basin of a river 
was a unit, a single country, each part being contiguous 
to the rest, and the possession of the whole being re- 
garded as necessary to the enjoyment of a part. 

This rule of discovery was adopted in practice by 
the commercial nations of Europe because it was a con- 
venient one, and, in general, of ready application. 
Hence, for more than a century after the night when 
Columbus hailed the land of St. Salvador, the French, 
the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the English, and the 
Dutch, were diligent in sailing up the bays, rivers, and 
creeks that give figure and character to the shores of 
America. Wherever they landed they erected crosses, 
or built huts, or cut their initials into a big rock, or kid- 
napped a native, or burned a village, or did some other 
act to show that a Christian people had been there. By 
thus leaving their tracks on the land they visited, they 
signified that they took possession of the country in the 
name and for the benefit of their sovereign. 

But straight-haired dusky Indians dwelt in America; 



68 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and what right had the Europeans to seize upon the 
lands on which the Indian woman raised her hominy, 
and over which the Indian hunter chased the bears and 
deer ? No right whatever ; nor did the Europeans claim 
such a right. The rule, that priority of discovery and 
settlement entitled a nation to the country discovered, 
was not introduced to affect the natives, nor understood 
to have any operation upon them. It was merely a re- 
gulating law adopted by the Europeans to guide tliem 
in their conduct towards each other m regard to their 
discoveries. For example, when France discovered the 
Mississippi, the rule of priority of discovery and settle- 
ment operated to exclude other European nations from 
tliat soil. This was the whole effect of the Law of Dis- 
covery. It required that the P^rench should be left to 
deal with the natives in the valley of the Mississippi, 
according to the French notions of justice. If they 
chose to traffic with those natives, tliey had the exclu- 
sive right, under this rule, to do so. If they chose to 
purchase the title of the natives to the soil, they had 
the exclusive right to do so. If they chose to hunt them 
down like wild beasts, they had the exclusive privilege 
to do so. No other nations had a right to trade with 
the Indians, or purchase lands from them, within the 
limits of the French discovery. If the discovering nation 
wronged the Indians, at their own door lay the sin. As 
a farther illustration of the meaning and operation of the 
rule, we may mention that when the Portuguese disco- 
vered the route to the East Indies, round the Cape of 
Good Hope, Portugal claimed the right to exclude other 
European nations from the Indian Ocean, and arrogated 
to herself, on tlie ground of discovery, a monopoly of the 
trade of the east. No European sails except her own 
were to be spread on the seas that wash the shores of 



THE RULE OF DISCOVERY. 69 

Southern Asia. The pearls, the diamonds, the gokl, 
the spices, the teas, the silks, and all the trade with the 
pagan princes of the east, were to come to Europe in 
Portuguese ships. But notwithstanding these lordly 
pretensions, Portugal claimed no rights against the na- 
tives of Southern and Eastern Asia, and with them she 
stood in the relation of one nation to another. Her claims 
were, however, too extensive for her power, and she failed 
to substantiate them. The rest of the world thought 
that her discoveries in the east should be thrown into 
common stock for the general benefit of mankind. 

These examples are introduced solely to illustrate the 
kind or extent of right conferred by discovery under the 
rule adopted by the Europeans. It is often asserted 
that they claimed the soil and sovereignty of America 
from the natives l)y virtue of the discovery, and 
much philanthropic rhetoric has been poured forth in 
condemnation of such a claim. In theory^ no such claim 
was ever advanced. During the period of discovery, 
the European nations, like the Portuguese in the Indian 
Ocean, claimed by virtue of their discoveries, an exclu- 
sive trading privilege with the nations within their re- 
spective discoveries. When the period of colonization 
arrived, the natives were, in fact, dispossessed often by 
violence, sometimes by purchase, and sometimes by 
fraud. Humanity was often dealt out to them in homoeo- 
pathic doses. Much commiseration was often ex- 
pressed for their pagan condition, and while the tears of 
compassion were " trembling on the eyelids, ready to 
drop," the poor Indian's hunting-ground was appropri- 
ated to his European benefactor. You may have seen 
the caricature of one heart feeling for another. Two 
hearts are pictured, and out of one of them comes an 
arm and hand feeling for the other. This absurd picture 



70 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

is a pretty fair type of the grasping kind of feeling which 
the Europeans, during the periods of discovery and co- 
lonization, exhibited towards the natives of America. 
But, notwithstanding tliese abuses of power on the part 
of the Europeans, many brilliant examples of pure and 
Christian justice are found, in their intercourse with the 
natives. This rule of discovery, by conferring upon the 
nation who discovered a tract of country the exclusive 
right to traffic with the natives, and the exclusive right 
to obtain from them the soil and sovereignty of the terri- 
tory, incited the European nations to send expeditions 
to the New World. And yet, strange though true, it 
required, afler the voyage of Columbus, a century to dis- 
cover the Hudson, two centuries to discover the Missis- 
sippi, and three centuries to discover the Columbia. 

II. The second motive above mentioned, namely, the 
hope of finding a westward route to India, or to some 
region rich in gold, was much the most effective in 
making the American continent kno^^^l to Europe. 
Gold, gold, and the westward passage to India — these 
were the idols at whose shrines the Portuguese, the 
Spaniard, the Frenchman, and the Englishman, all 
bowed. A Yankee of the present day, believes that a 
pair of shoes, or a bushel of wheat, or a fat beef, or a 
wooden clock, is as substantial wealth as a piece of gold. 
Tell a Pennsylvanian that the anthracite coal beds con- 
tain ninety-nine parts to the hundred of pure diamond, 
and that if one part more of the pure matter were added 
to these ninety-nine, the whole anthracite region would 
become a massive, brilliant jewel, and he will, perhaps, 
tell you, " the coal beds are more valuable as they are." 
Three hundred years ago, however, a different idea of 
wealth pervaded the JCuropean mind, (rold and silver, 
and gems and jewels, tliese were wealUi — nothing else 



WESTERN ROUTE TO INDIA. 71 

•was worthy the name. This false theory of pohtieal 
economy, is the key to the whole commercial and colonial 
history of Europe. In ol)edience to it, the sovereigns 
of the several kingdoms of Europe encouraged expedi- 
tions westward in search of gold. Some of them, the 
Spaniards for example, attempted to find this gold on 
the American continent ; others of them attempted, by 
discovering a westward route to India, to get at the 
purses of the rich bankers of Cathay. Were we asked 
to name the leading characterizing motive which gave 
impulse to the English explorations of North America, 
during the one hundred and twenty years of the period 
of discovery, we would say that it was the hope of finding 
the western route to India. It was in search of this that 
Cabot was sent on the voyage which resulted in the dis- 
covery of continental America. Sebastian Cabot's ac- 
count of his voyage, exhibits this ruling motive so lumi- 
nously, that I am tempted to present it before you. In 
his own language, as reported by his biographers, it runs 
as follows, the orthography being modernized : 

" When news were brought that Don Christopher Co- 
lumbus of Genoa had discovered the coast of India, 
(whereof was great talk in the court of King Henry the 
Seventh, who then reigned, insomuch that all men, with 
great admiration, affirmed it to be a thing more divine 
than human to sail by the west into the east, where 
spices grow, by a way that was never known before), by 
this fame and report there increased in my heart a great 
flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And, 
understanding by reason of the sphere, that if I should 
sail by way of the northwest, I should by a shorter tract 
come to India, I thereupon caused the king to be adver- 
tised of my device, who immediately commanded two 
cai-avels to be furnished witli all things appertaining to 



72 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the voyap^e, which was, as far as I remember, in the year 
149G, in tJie beginning of summer. I began, therefore, 
to sail toward the northwest, not thinking to find any 
other hind than that of Cathay, and from thence to turn 
toward India : but after certain days I found that the 
land ran towards the north, which was to me a great 
displeasure. Nevertheless, sailing along by the coast to 
see if I could find any gulf that turned, I found the land 
still continent to the 56 degree under our pole. And, 
seeing that there the coast turned towai'd the east, de- 
spairing to find tlie passage, I turned back again and 
sailed down by tlie coast of that land toward the equi- 
noctial (ever intent to find the said passage to India), 
and came to that part of this firm land which is called 
Florida, where my victuals failing I departed from thence 
and returned to England, where I lound great tumults 
among the peo})le, and ])re})aration for wars in Scotland, 
by reason whereof there was no more consideration 
had of fliis voyage."* 

We can readily imagine the " displeasure" of the 
w^orthy navigator when he could find no passage leading 
to the golden Cathay. His representation of Ihe motives 
of his voyage exhibits the earnest desire of Kngland. Ilis 
disappointment, however, did not end the search for the 
western route to Inilia. Henry VIII. , and after him, Eliza- 
beth, fitted out several expeditions, and encouraged their 
subjects to undertake others, for the purpose of seeking 
this western passage. Among these adventm-ers, Fro- 
bisher was despatched, under the patronage of Elizabeth, 
on several expeditions, in search of the earnestly desired 
route. Afier several attempts among the icebergs of the 
north, he succeeded, not in discovering India, but in affix- 

* Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot, page 10. 



WESTERN ROUTE TO INDIA. 73 

ing his name to a channel south of Greenland. He thus 
gained a name on the map of the world, and made sailors 
and school boys acquainted with I'robisher's Straits. 
After he had worn out his reputation by repeated fail- 
ures, some London merchants litted out a couple of ves- 
sels, appropriately named Sunshine and Moonshine, and 
sent them in A. U. 1585, under the command of " hon- 
est" John Davis, to find out the western route to India. 
Davis proved himself a seaman of the highest order, and 
made three successive voyages to the northern coast of 
America. He made various landings on the southwest- 
ern coast of Greenland, and passed through the straits 
that have been named in his honour. After bulletiiifj 
tlie icebergs, and wandering among the freezing mists, 
he penetrated far into Baffin's Bay, and returned from 
his tliird voyage to communicate the disconsolatory in- 
telligence that great barriers of ice obstructed his way. 
Stnsil)le men in EnMand began to think that the west- 
ward route to India w^as literally "moonshine." 

But the sunshine of hope still sent its life to English 
exploration, and Sir Francis Drake was despatched by 
Elizabeth to die Pacific, with directions to search the 
bays and inlets on the northwestern coast of America, 
and find, if possible, a channel of communication be- 
tween tlie Pacific and Atlantic. It was certainly a cun- 
ningly devised idea, that if a passage on the north could 
not be found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, one might 
be found from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Drake went 
on his mission ; but, instead of searching for a p.assage 
on the northwest, he turned freebooter, and plundered 
the Spanish towns on the western coast of America. 

The day-dreams of the English in regard to the 
western passage to India, were dreamed over again by 
the Dutch, who had just asserted tlieir independence, 

G 



74 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and who spent the last quarter of the sixteenth century 
in a terrific struggle with their Spanish sovereigns. Com- 
merce poured its treasures into Amsterdam, and the 
Holland East India Company sent Henry Hudson in 
search of the long desired western passage to Asia. Ar- 
riving off the coast of Maine, he voyaged towards the 
south, and discovered, in A. D. 1609, the Hudson river. 
Hoping to find some outlet by which he could proceed 
to Asia, he passed up the river to the head of the tide, 
or perhaps farther. What a brilliant geographical idea 
was that of going to India by pushing a boat along by 
Kinderhook and Troy ! The discovery of the Hudson, 
however, constituted the claim of Holland to the basin 
of tlie Hudson river, and brought the Dutch to settle in 
New York. 

Passing from the service of Holland to that of Eng- 
land, Hudson again went in search of the western pas- 
sage to India. Directing his course towards the north- 
west, he entered that inland ocean which has received 
from him the name of Hudson's Bay. Encountering in- 
credible hardships, he wintered on its icy. shores, and, 
full of faith and hope, prepared to renew his explorations 
in the spring. Wanting the faith, and not participating 
in the enthusiasm of their leader, his crew mutinied, and 
committing him to an open boat, left him to perish in 
the wintry and rugged sea he had discovered.* 

Such was the central idea of the English explorations 
of America during the one hundred and twenty years 
of the period of discovery. The English were not, it 
is true, without the hope of finding gold in America, but 
their attempts at gold hunting were singularly unfortu- 
nate, and had something of a ludicrous cast. Among 
these moonshine attempts were the feats performed by 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Frobisher, in the reign of 



SEARCH FOR GOLD. 75 

Elizabeth. Sir Humphrey having been sent to explore 
the coast of Virginia, was carried, by the thirst of gold, 
to the banks of Newfoundland. The "mineral man" 
of the expedition, a real Dousterswivel, discovered gold 
at this great fishery. Quietly lading their ships by 
night, and completely duping the French, Spaniards, 
and Portuguese, who were in the same region, the Eng- 
lish sailed for home, and landed a cargo of shining 
metal, which proved to be iron pyrites, almost as valu- 
able as a cargo of paving-stones. Frobisher's perform- 
ance was of the same character. He carried away two 
hundred tons of gold-like metal from the frozen shores 
of the strait that bears his name, and brought it safely 
to London. It proved to be, like Sir Humphrey Gilbert's 
prize, all " moonshine." 

Such feats did not dispose the English to seek farther 
for American gold. They preferred the treasures that 
were to be poured into good old England when they 
should discover the western passage to the golden coasts 
of Oriental Asia. ^ 

The leading motive of the Spanish explorations was ,j^ 
the hope of finding gold and silver in America. In 
search of this they desolated Mexico and Peru. Pizarro 
and Cortes were mere mineral men, mere imbodiments 
of the ruling spirit of Spain. Their discoveries poured 
the precious metals into the mother country, and en- 
couraged worthy Spanish grandees to explore the Ama- 
zon and La Plata, and drive their mules across the Andes. 

It is a matter of interest to think of the imaginary re- 
gions, ways, and waters, which the early explorers for 
gold and silver, and the India passage, located in Ame- 
rica. Among these imagined lands was the one called 
by the Spaniards Quivira. They believed that after the 
death of Montezuma, a prince of his family, accompanied 



76 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

by a band of trusty followers, with immense treasures, 
retired deep into the forests north of Mexico, where they 
founded a kingdom called Quivira, whose capital, Ci- 
bola, was rich in gold. Many expeditions were under- 
taken by the Spaniards into the country north of Cali- 
fornia, in search of this golden city. They found a 
desolate country, but never caught a glimpse of Cibola. 

A similar tradition prevailed respecting a country in 
South America between Brazil and Peru, where there 
existed a rich empire named Paitaiti. Hither the Incas 
of Peru had retired with their treasures, and erected a 
new empire. North of Paitaiti was El Dorado, a country 
full of gold, in search of which, Walter Raleigh under- 
took his adventures. His fruitless search has rendered 
the name proverbial for imaginaiy golden regions. 

South of Paitaiti was a third fabulous land, whose 
golden capital was dignified by the name of the " City 
of the Caesars." In tliis magnificent country, house- 
tiles and ploughshares were made of gold. 

Such were some of the golden regions, in search of 
which long journeys were undertaken, and incredible pri- 
vations endured. Closely allied in influence with these 
metallic regions were other localities, whose remarkable 
properties caused them to be eagerly sought after. The 
fountain of Bimini was one of these rare and desirable 
places. It was situated in the present Florida or Georgia, 
and possessed the property of renewing the youth of those 
who bathed in its waters. According to popular belief, 
whoever laved his mangy limbs in this fountain would 
be purified, and, what was still more desired, would 
live on in " immortal youth" in more enjoyment than is 
promised in the Paradise of Mahomet. The old Spa- 
nish knight. Ponce de Leon, undertook an expedition 
in search of this precious fountain. He traversed Flo- 



EXPEDITION OF DE SOTO. 77 

rida and the adjacent regions ; but instead of the limpid 
fountain of Bimini, he floundered among deep morasses 
and frog-ponds, caught the ague, and died with disap- 
pointment. 

But the flowing waters of Bimini and the rich em- 
pires of Quivira and El Dorado, were not the only 
objects of attraction to the Spaniards, or the only influ- 
ences that sent them into North America. They aimed 
at territorial discovery and other beneficial results. 
Ponce de Leon was in Florida, searching for Bimini, in 
A. D. 1512. He was followed into the same region by 
Ayllon, who coasted as far north as South Carolina, 
caught a ship-load of natives, and sold them for slaves. 
Gomez and Narvaez followed him, and .came as far north 
as New England, seeking for a strait or outlet through 
which to go to the East Indies. 

But the history of discovery in North America is 
illumined with one magnificent expedition of the Spa- 
niards, under De Soto. Fable has impressed its mark 
upon it, and the scissors of critics have almost clipped 
it from the pages of history. The expedition is, how- 
ever, an attractive episode in the details of American 
discoveries, and is so much in harmony with the spirit 
of the age, that if it never did take place it has been 
wondrously well imagined, and does not present half so 
mythic and suspicious a figure as thousands of Cublai 
Khan stories detailed for general information. It merits 
your notice as a proper representation of the gold-hunt- 
ing mania. i 

What is known of this expedition ? By birth a no- 
bleman, in wealth a prince, De Soto left the vines and 
olives of his native Spain to seek fbr gold in the forests 
of North America. A soldier under Pizarro, he had 
witnessed the luxuriance and shared the spoils of the 

G* 



78 OEIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Incas of Peru. Popular credulity had peopled the fo- 
rests of North America with cities and temples glittering 
with jewels, and rich in all that could tempt the cupidity 
of reckless avarice. Emulous of the glory of Pizarro 
and Cortes, De Soto obtained from the Spanish sove- 
reign, the far-famed Charles V., permission to explore, 
colonize, and govern the lands north of the Gulf of 
Mexico. Accompanied by a princely retinue, he landed 
on the coast of Florida, in A. D. 1539. In his train 
came a motley mixture of women and artisans, pigs, 
poultry, and horses, and blood-hounds to hunt the In- 
dians. The leaders of the army shone with trappings 
of gold, and the whole was a sight " goodly to look 
upon." Landing upon the southwestern coast of the 
peninsula of Florida, they marched into the wilderness 
in search of gold. Plunging into the depths of the fo- 
rests, they carried with them the implements of hus- 
bandry, Bibles, priests, cards, and wine. They tra- 
versed the swamps of Florida, the pine baiTens of 
Georgia, and entered South Carolina. They then turned 
westward, and penetrated to the waters of Alabama, 
which flow into the Gulf of Mexico. They descended 
to Mobile, fought there a bloody battle with the natives; 
then turned to the northwest, and reached the Missis- 
sippi. Crossing it, they made a circuit into the north- 
west quarter, and turning southward came to the mouth 
of the Red River. There, broken down with disappoint- 
ment, and wasted with disease, De Soto died. Wrapped 
in his mantle, and cased in his armour, his body was 
sunk in the middle of the Mississippi ; an appropriate 
burial for the discoverer of the great river of the west. 
After the death of De Soto, his little army turned west- 
ward, thinking to march by land to Mexico. They 
were soon in the great American desert of the south, 



FRENCH COLONIZATION. 79 

and in a state of starvation. Compelled to retrace their 
steps, tliey reached the Mississippi above the mouth of 
Red River, built boats, descended to the ocean, and 
thence proceeded — a miserable remnant — to the Spanish 
colonies in Mexico. 

Such was the splendid Spanish expedition into the 
limits of the present United States. For what was it 
undertaken? To find gold, and the splendid cities with 
which Spanish fancy had filled North America. Mexico 
was supposed to be merely one of the many golden 
cities of the New World. In search of the others, this 
and other expeditions were undertaken. But disap- 
pointment cooled the ardour of avarice, and the Spa- 
niards did not retrace the route, or revisit the burial- 
place of De Soto : they ceased to explore North Ame- 
rica. 

III. The third prominent motive that influenced the 
explorations and discoveries in North America, was the 
desire to plant colonies. The English visited America 
because it was on the way and in the way to India, the 
Spaniards visited it in search of gold, and the French 
to establish colonies. While England and Spain were 
in search of their two favourite objects, the French were 
catching fish at Newfoundland, and visiting the different 
points of interest in the basin of the St. Lawrence. 
Following up that stream they came to the great lakes, 
and, having obtained a general idea of the form and 
magnitude of those inland seas, they subsequently pro- 
ceeded south westward, and came upon th^ waters of 
the Mississippi. Following that great river " on its 
winding way," they came to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
by these explorations became, under the European rule 
of discovery, inchoately entitled to the vast regions 
drained by the St. Lawrence and Mississippi. All this, 



X 



80 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

however, was the work of nearly two centuries ; for it 
was in 1G73 that Marquette and Joliettc, the French 
pioneers, left the lakes of the northwest and foiuid tlie 
father of western waters. 

These explorations were, for the most part, under- 
taken in the hope of creating a New France in North 
America. The desire of the French government was to 
plant a colony on the St. Lawrence, which would, in it- 
self, be a great empire subordinate to the motha* country. 
French enthusiasm luxuriated in the vision of a vast ter- 
ritory in the basin of the St. Lawrence, pom'ing its 
treasures into Old France. John Verrazani was the Ca- 
bot of French discovery ; but it was to James Cai-tier 
that France owed the discovery of the St. Lawrence. 
A commission of the French king to him and Francis de 
la Ro(|ue, Lord of Roberval, gave authority to establish a 
colony in New France, as the country drained by tlie 
St. Lawrence was christened. But their attempt was a 
failure, as were many subsequent efforts of a similar cha- 
racter. A whole century passed away, and it was not 
till about A. D. 1600, that Champlain, a hardy and dis- 
creet French adventurer, laid the foundations of a per- 
manent French colony. After exploring the St. Law- 
rence he founded Quebec, and became the Father of 
New France. Lake Champlain, in the United States, 
commemorates his name, and France was indebted to 
him for her colonies in America. 

Li the meantime, tlie Huguenots, suffering at home 
from religious persecution, endeavoured under Coligny 
to plant a colony in Carolina. There, in A. D. 1562, 
tliey began to plant, to sow, and to build. But disasters 
overtook them, the colony was abandoned, and the only 
relic it has bequeathed to oiu" own time is the name Ca- 
rolina, so called from Chailes IX., who then sat on tlie 



MOTIVES TO EXPLORATION. 81 

French throne. The Huguenots made otlier explora- 
tions, and again settled a colony on the St. John's river, 
in Northern Florida. This too had an ephemeral exist- 
ence and a tragic end, being destroyed by the Spaniiu'ds. 
The actual colonists of New France were the haixly fish- 
ermen, and adventurers who came to make gain. Reli- 
gious zeal, too, sent her Jesuit missionaries into the basin 
of the St. Lawrence, and those adventurous fathers con- 
tributed much to the discovery of the country. Yet the 
hope of establishing a colony was the leading, impelling 
motive that brought the French to North America. 

We have now presented in detail before you the 
three leading motives which influenced the European 
nations in making discoveries and explorations in North 
America. The desire of acquiring new territories was 
common to them all ; but the central idea of the Fng- 
lish explorations was that the East Indies could be found 
by the westward passage ; the Spaniards searched for 
gold ; and the French desired to establish a great Ame- 
rican colony subservient to the interests of Old France. 
In representing these as the characterizing ideas on 
which these several nations acted, we do not wish to be 
understood as saying tliat no other motives whatever had 
any influence upon them ; nor do we intend to say that 
tliese several ideas or motives did not all act unitedly 
upon each of these nations. The English, the French, 
and the Spaniards, would all have picked up gold if 
they could have found it, or they would all have paid 
their compliments to the rich Cathayans if they could 
have made the acquaintance of those Asiatic gentlemen. 
All that we wish to represent is, that the prominent mo- 
tives which brought the Europeans to America during 
the one hundred and twenty years of tlie period of dis- 
covery, were so distributed tliat the English mainly 



82 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

sought for the Indies, the Spaniards for gold, and the 
French for the means to establish colonies. All were 
ambitious of owning great regions in America. 

But what connexion had these motives for visiting 
and exploring the western continent, with the establish- 
ment of our republic ? How did the search for gold, or 
for India, or the attempt to colonize New France, har- 
monize and connect themselves with the plan or design 
of the Ruler of the world in regard to democratic go- 
vernment in America? The connexion was intimate 
and natural, and the harmony was the harmony of means 
adapted to an end. These motives to visit America, 
these prominent ideas respecting gold and the Indies, 
and colonial possessions, made our continent known to 
Europe, and revealed its rivers, bays, valleys, and moun- 
tains. These impulses to explore the country, and the 
explorations themselves, were agencies similar to those 
usually employed to bring about great and remote re- 
sults in the movements of the human race. The masses 
of men act from views of present interest, or from an 
expectation of results that are to be realized, if possible, 
within the statute of limitations. In forming their plans 
of action, they do not look forward to the remote con- 
sequences, or direct their actions to the attainment of 
ends beneficial to mankind in general. They do not 
act upon extensive far-reaching plans that are to be con- 
summated centuries after the grass has grown upon their 
graves. This universal benevolence may be professed, 
and there may occasionally be found an actual, real 
Man of Ross ; but, in the rough and busy world, few 
men plant trees for the benefit of mankind in general ; 
few men cultivate orchards with a view to benefit their 
descendants of the fifth generation. Present , interests 



RESULTS OF THE EXPLORATIONS. §3, 

and speedily realized results, are the usual motives to 
action. 

Providence permits these motives to influence the 
conduct of men ; and their actions then become instru- 
ments or agencies in his hands for accomplishing his 
purposes. Viewed in reference to the plans of Provi- 
dence, the explorations of America, from whatever mo- 
tive performed, were instruments or agencies similar to 
those usually employed in accomplishing schemes for 
the remote benefit of mankind. The French, English, 
and Spanish adventurers did not brave starvation, agues, 
and Indians, with a view to establish a popular govern- 
ment in America two centuries after their pilgrimage 
should be ended. They acted from motives of present 
interest ; and the establishment of a democracy was 
brought about in the way of natural consequence from 
their actions. 

This is the usual course of events. Men act from 
motives that are interested, temporary, and local, and Pro- 
vidence employs their acts as his system of agencies to 
bring about the ends he has planned. Suppose Sebastian 
Cabot, when in his older days he urged Henry VIII. to 
send an expedition to explore America, had presented as 
a motive to his majesty, the great benefit he would do 
to the world and posterity. Suppose the old sailor had 
painted before the king a vision, in which was seen the 
American republic, where the popular masses do the 
governing, where no established church grinds the con- 
science of the worshippers, and where an unostentatious 
citizen presides over nineteen millions of his countrymen 
with their consent, and by their votes. Suppose Cabot 
had urged such an end as a motive to explore America, 
what effect would have been produced upon the royal 
Knglisliman, with his lofty ideas of kingly prerogative, 



84 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and ecclesiastical supremacy? Henry would merely 
have echoed the general sentunent of the mass of man- 
kind, if he had replied with the energy of a modern poli- 
tician, 

" Why talk so much about posterity ? What has 
posterity done for us ?" 

Well, Henry, they have done one thing for you in 
particular ; they have pronounced you a pretty " hard 
case," though you had the heroism to marry six wives. 
But, though such remote, uncongenial, and undesirable 
results would have had little influence upon a Henry 
Vni., yet, when it was represented to him and his sub- 
jects that by sailing westward the route to India might 
be found, springs of action were touched, and ships visit- 
ed North America. Gold and colonial possessions sent 
the French and Spaniards to the same region. Through 
the influence of these avaricious motives, the explora- 
tion of America was more effectually made than if the 
Gilberts, the Cabots, the Frobishers, the Hudsons, 
&c., had sailed for the single purpose of organizing 
our republic. 

It is in this way that the interested, temporary, 
and local motives of men, bring about remote ends 
in the general course of Providence. Viewed as 
agencies in the accomplishment of the plan to esta- 
blish a republic, the explorations of America, though 
springing from selfish motives, assume a remarkable 
unity and interest. Their unity is the unity of many 
separate actions, all having a prospective reference to 
one end ; namely, the establishment of democracy. 
Their interest is the interest that attaches to actions done 
in the accomplishment of a vast, magnificent, and far- 
sweeping plan. 

The period of discovery, during which these explo- 



COLONIZATION BEGINS. 85 

rations were made, extended, as I have already intimated, 
over one hundred and twenty years. It is not pretended 
that the explorations of America ceased precisely at the 
end of one hundred and twenty years from the voyage 
of Columbus ; for they have not yet ceased. But when 
that time had elapsed, the Europeans, and especially 
the English, began to entertain more rational views re- 
specting America. They began in good earnest to 
plant colonies, and to look to the soil as the source 
of wealth in the New World. The period of dis- 
covery was, however, a necessary prelude. ' It was 
the time of visions, and the hour of preparation. To it 
succeeded the heroic age, the age of colonization, to 
whose examination we now hasten. 

H 



LECTURE III. 

COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 

Period of Colonization — Connexion of its events with democratic go- 
vernment — Attempts at Colonization — The first attempt is made by 
foreign corporations — King James's charters — I. Attempt by a cor- 
poration to colonize Virginia; success, difficulties, and tinal failure^ 
II. Attempt by a corporation to colonize New England ; diflicultics, 
grants of territory, and failure — III. Attempt by a corporation to 
settle New Sweden — IV. Attempt by a corporation to settle tho 
New Netherlands : The Dutch West India Company — V. Attempt 
by a corporation to colonize Georgia — Objects and difficulties — Suc- 
cessive failure of these attempts — Causes of their failure — Corpora- 
tions not well fitted to plant colonies — Benefits arising from their 
labours, and dissolution. 

We have reviewed the period of discovery and ex- 
ploration, and corne next to the period of colonization. 
This, like the former, extended through nearly one 
hundred and twenty years. For the effective coloniza- 
tion of our country began about A. D. 1610, and was 
continued at different times, and at different points, till 
about A. D. 1732, when Georgia, the youngest of tlie 
ante-revolutionary colonies, was planted. 

In the previous lecture, we stated that the apparently 
disconnected discoveries and explorations of North 
America were, by reference to the general results already 
developed, connected together as acts in the system of 
agencies by which our republic was established. The 
numerous and apparently disconnected attempts at Ame- 
rican colonization, are also intimately connected with 
tlie same result ; and though they were in themselves 
separate, fragmentary, dissociated events, having on tlie 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 8T. 

part of tlie actors no reference to the organization of an 
extensive, united government, yet they so harmonized, 
and so wrought together, that they became parts of the 
same system of agencies, and concurred in ukimately 
producing the United States. It is true that the events 
of American colonization are very disconnected — one 
colony was planted in the south, another in the north, 
and others were scattered along the Atlantic coast ; the 
colonists came to the wilderness under different leaders, 
had different prospects, and formed different communi- 
ties. But unity in the midst of diversity is a law of na- 
ture, which extends alike through material things and 
moral events. In the structure of the plant there are 
roots, and branches, and bark, and leaves, and wood, 
and pith, all combined, and contributing to the growth 
and developement of tlie tree. The sap passes through 
its appropriate channels, the bud swells, the leaf ex- 
pands, the flower blooms, the fruit appears, and the 
sprout grows into a tree. Here various expedients are 
provided and employed to accomplish a single end. In 
like manner, the events of the period of American coloni- 
zation were diversified, numerous, and various ; but 
tlaey were combined into a single system of agencies, 
and contributed to the production, growth, and develope- 
ment of our republic. They too were expedients — va- 
rious and diversified expedients — provided and employed 
to accomplish a single end. They had a prospective 
reference to the establishment of democratic government 
in America ; and here again allow me an illustration 
from material things. The eye is formed, before birth, 
in the dark recess of tlie head ; but in its organism 
there are lenses, and coats, and humours, and nerves, 
forming an apparatus evidently designed to reveal the 
glorious tints of light that colour and beautify the heavens 



88 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and the earth. Who can deny that the eye is a pro- 
spective contrivance ? Who does not beUeve that it is 
formed with reference to the world that is to be revealed 
at birth ? After a manner in some respects similar, the 
old thirteen colonies had, in their origin, a prospective 
reference to another state of political existence. Their 
powers — their uses — the ends they were to subserve in 
the general movements of mankind, began to be more 
fully revealed at that birthday of freedom, the American 
Revolution. 

Let us examine the colonization of America, in re- 
ference to this subsequent national existence. Let us 
see in what manner the influences and events connected 
with the origin and progress of the colonies became 
agencies in the accomplishment of the plan to establish 
a republic. We can perform this task most readily, by 
directing our attention to the several kinds of attempts 
that were made to plant and govern colonies in America. 
Were we to classify these attempts according to their 
nature, the arrangement would be as follows : 

Firstj Foreign corporations tried to plant and go- 
vern colonies in America ; 

Second, Feudal nobles tried to plant and govern co- 
lonies in America; 

TIdrd, The crown tried to plant and govern colonies 
in America ; 

Fourth, The people, the masses, independently of 
foreign corporations, feudal nobles, and the crown, tried 
to form colonies in America. 

The old thirteen colonies originated in one or other 
of these four kinds of attempts. It is obvious, that if 
corporations, or feudal nobles, or the crown, had suc- 
ceeded in planting and governing these colonies, demo- 
cracy would not and could not have become triumphant. 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 89 

The success of the fourth attempt at colonization — the 
attempt of the popular masses — was essential to tlie pro- 
duction of the ultimate result, the establishment of po- 
pular government. That this result might be reached, 
it was necessary either that the popular masses should 
do the colonizhig, or that they should enter into the 
labours of the corporations, the feudal nobles, and the 
crown. In fact, both these events happened. The po- 
pular masses did succeed in forming colonies, and they 
did oust the other three classes of colonizers from their 
possessions, and appropriated their labours. The cor- 
porations failed, the feudal nobles failed, and the crown 
failed in their attempts to put themselves and keep them- 
selves at the head of American colonies. The fruits of 
their toils and expenditures passed into the hands of the 
fourth class of colonizers — the popular masses. 

In classifying the attempts at colonization into the 
four classes just enumerated, we have reference to the 
nature of the attempts, and not to the order of time in 
which they were made. In point of fact, the attempts 
of the popular masses were in origin nearly synchronal 
with the attempts of the corporations. And the whole 
four were going forward at the same time, sometimes 
one occupying the largest share of attention, and some- 
times another. When, therefore, we refer to these at- 
tempts as the first, second, third, and fourth, w^e must 
be understood as speaking of them in the order above 
adopted, and not as intimating that the one preceded or 
followed the others in a chronological order. 

That we may have a correct view of the operation 
of each of these attempts in originating ouj- republic, 
we w'ill call your attention to them a little in detail. In 
doing so, however, it may be well to premise that they 
will be frequently found to run into each other ; so that 
II* 



90 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

colonies which were commenced by a corporation often 
pass into the possession of the crown, or of the popular 
masses ; and so of the others. But preserving, as far 
as conveniently practicable, the order, or classification 
above stated, we will review the several attempts at co- 
lonization in the order now mentioned ; and first : 

FOREIGN CORPORATIONS TRIED TO PLANT AND GOVERN 
COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA. 

By foreign corporations, in this connexion, is under- 
stood corporations whose members did not reside in the 
colony. If such corporations could have colonized 
America, the New World would speedily have been 
filled with inhabitants from Europe ; for, by the com- 
mencement of the seventeenth century, the English had 
grown weary of their search for the western route to 
India. The visions of tlie French, in regard to the es- 
tablishment of a great colony in America subservient to 
tlie interests of the mother country, crossed the British 
Channel, and became by A. D. 1600 the visions of the 
English, whose attention was now turned to the soil of 
America, and projects were formed in England for cre- 
ating colonies on tliis side of the Atlantic. Corporations 
were the agencies through which tliese colonial projects 
were sought to be realized, and commercial cupidity was 
the immediate moving influence. In obedience to its im- 
l)ulse, adventurers sought the means of enriching them- 
selves from the soil and fisheries of America. Applica- 
tion was made to the English king to lend " the light of 
his countenance" to the ehterprise, and in A. D, 1606, 
James I. affixed Hie royal signature to a document as 
extraordinary as any that the world ever saw. This was 
a charter incorporating Sir Thomas Gates, and certain 
otlier loyal and dutiful subjects, into a company, to 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 91 

which the charter granted the soil and sovereignty of a 
belt of Nortli America, extending from the thirty-fourth 
to tlie forty-fifth parallel of latitude, and reaching from 
the Atlantic coast away westward to the Pacific. Look 
at the map, and you will see that this grant extended on 
the Atlantic border from South Carolina to the middle 
of Maine, and had a western appendage as long as the 
tail of a comet. 

But what right had the royal Scotchman to give 
away North America to corporations or individuals ? 
The right of discovery. But admit that England had a 
right to North America by discovery, how came it that 
the English parliament had no voice in granting it away ? 
Why did King James take the matter into his own 
hands, and give away the country at his pleasure ? 
Here is the centre of the great truth which stood out so 
prominently at the American Revolution, The English 
kings, like the colonists at the Revolution, asserted that 
countries newly discovered by English subjects belonged 
to the crown, and that parliamentary legislation should 
be limited to matters within the realm. Hence, when 
the Cabots, sailing from England, discovered North 
America, the discovery, according to the language of 
those times, enured to the king's benefit, and was at his 
disposal. King James accordingly regarded America 
merely as a great farm, w^hose acres he could dispose 
of at his will without consulting parliament ; and hence, 
of his free grace and mere motion, he gave away, of the 
new continent, a belt of eleven degrees, embracing a 
country capable of sustaining the one-third of the human 
family. 

This, it must be admitted, was a pretty liberal dona- 
tion ; but, in making it, the English sovereign merely fol- 
lowed the custom then prevalent in Europe of giving away 



92 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

immense tracts of the New World, without inquiring par- 
ticuhirly into their extent or vahie, or into his own right 
to dispose of them. The Roman pontiff had, more than 
a century before the incorporation of King James's 
mastodon company, kindly divided the world between 
Spain and Portugal. His Holiness supposed a line to be 
drawn from tlie north to the south pole, and running 
near the ports of Cadiz and Lisbon. Spain was 
to have all newly discovered countries west of this 
line, and Portugiil all east of it. This, it must be con- 
fessed, was a pretty liberal division ; but Kiiig James's 
grant was only a little more modest than this partition of 
the pontiff. 

I. Through the agency of this English corporation 
was commenced the first colony in the United States. 
The corporation itself was divided into two companies, 
one of which was to occupy itself in colonizing the 
southern, and tlie other tJie northern part of the grant. 
The southern company, known as the London company, 
immediately commenced operations. Under their di- 
rections, a ship bearing the fust emigrants to a permanent 
English settlement in America, entered the waters of the 
Chesapeake, in A. D. 1607. As a compliment to the 
English sovereign, they named the capes of tliis bay, 
Henry and Charles, tire names of the sons of King 
James. They sailed fif\y miles up a river, to which they 
gave tlie name of James's River, in honour of their so- 
vereign. They landed in the wilderness, and commenced 
a town, to which they gave the name of Jamestown, 
also in honour of their sovereign. How many of their 
children they named James, in honour of the same king, 
we know not ; but the care taken by the corporation to 
]iropitiate their sovereign by these little pieces of flattery, 
exhibits their anxiety to retain his good will, by minis- 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 93 

tering to his vanity. These names which are still re- 
tained, are a lasting memorial of tlie auspices under 
which our republic commenced. 

The landing of these emigrants at Jamestown was 
the commencement of the old thirteen colonies. One 
hundred and five colonists there began to build these 
United States. To say that disease, want, despair, and 
rapid mortality attended their first attempts, would be a 
statement of facts that occurred not only in Virginia, 
but in nearly all the early colonies of America. 

We have represented that to this corporation the 
king transferred both the soil and sovereignty of the 
territory described in the grant. This absolute property 
and sovereignty was not indeed fully conveyed in the 
first form of the charter; but that document within a 
few years underwent several modifications and enlarge- 
ments, by virtue of which tlie free and absolute owner- 
ship of the soil, as well as the right to govern it, was 
vested in the corporation. To that body was committed 
all authority over the plantations within their territory. I 
have made this statement with the more explicitness, for 
tlie purpose of saying that to a corporation belongs the 
honour of the good, and the blame of the evil which 
attended tlie early steps of the Virginia colony. 

The evils which the colony suffered from being under 
the ownership and government of a corporation were, 
the want of political privileges, exposure to the rapacity 
of their masters, the bad government of faithless agents 
of the corporation, and, generally, all the vexations and 
injuries which flow from an absolute subjection to a body 
witliout a conscience. 

The benefits which tlie colonists derived from beinsr 
under the ownership and government of a corporation, 
may be referred to their individual rights and political 



94 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

privileges. In respect of individual rights, the emi- 
grants were at first the servants of the corporation, and 
had no private property in the soil. They laboured in 
common, and brought the fruits of their toil into the 
storehouses of the corporation, and received in return 
all that they produced, and a little more. The corpora- 
tion iinding this a profitless business, changed their sys- 
tem, and transferred lands to individual colonists in 
private property. Immediately a new state of affairs 
appeared. The colonists already in Virginia began to 
work in good earnest ; others embarked from England ; 
industry increased, and population began to stream into 
the new colony. In respect of political privileges, the 
emigrants, upon their first arrival, were subject to the ab- 
solute government of the corporation ; and their governor 
appointed by the company in England, combined, in his 
single person, the four great functions of lawgiver, judge, 
jury, and executive. His imperial authority was occa- 
sionally restrained by a council, whose members, like him- 
self, derived their appointment from the corporation. 
Under this system, a bad man in the governor's chair 
was a terrible scourge, and a few bad men happened to 
get there ; a good man in the same station was a bless- 
ing devoutly to be desired, and Sir George Yeardley, a 
good man, was placed there. 

Under his administration the political tyranny of the 
corporation came to an end. By his permission, though 
without the authority of the corporation, the colonists 
assembled by their delegates, and were admitted to a 
share in tlie government. Here was tlie commencement 
of the legislative liberty of the future republic. It oc- 
curred in June, A. D. 1619 ; the year and the month 
deserved to be commemorated. 

The corporation in England, when informed of this 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 95 

ebullition of liberty in their American dominions, were 
not surprised that Knglishmen should so act, and they 
rather approved than annulled the action of the spon- 
taneous assembly. To get money — honestly if they 
could — but to get money was the leading motive of the 
corporation. The soil and sovereignty of their American 
territory had been sought after for this purpose. When 
they thought that, by granting land to colonists in private 
property, their own gains would be speedily increased, 
they granted land in private properly ; and now, when 
it appeared probable that, by conhrming the action of a 
popular assembly, the colony would improve, and the 
gains of the corporation be increased, they first per- 
mitted, and afterwards established, such an assembly ; 
for in A. D. 1621, they gave to the colony a written 
constitution, which became the model of a similar in- 
strument in many of the subsequent colonies. J3y this 
constitution the corporation were to appoint a governor 
and council, and the colonists were yearly to elect mem- 
bers to a legislative assembly. The members of the 
council were to have a seat in the legislative assembly, 
where all laws pertaining to the colony were to be en- 
acted, the governor having a veto, and the corporation 
in England reserving to themselves a negative upon the 
whole legislation. Notwhhstanding these vetoes, no law 
or ordinance proposed by the governor or corporation, 
was to affect the colony till it had passed tlie legislative 
assembly. 

Such was the liberation of the Virginia colonists. 
When this liberal constitution was granted, the work of 
the corporation was at an end. They had expended money 
and treasure in the commercial speculation of {)huiling a 
colony ; and gave to their colonists private properly 
and political privileges, in the expectation of reaping a 



96 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

more abundant harvest in return. But these golden an- 
ticipations were never realized. The colony poured no 
wealth into the treasury of the corporation. That body 
became dissatisfied ; it attempted a few acts of oppres- 
sion ; it quarrelled with the king ; became odious to the 
public ; and then, like other actors whose business hi 
this world is finished, and whose decrepitudes render 
dissolution a mercy, it received intimations that its 
days were numbered. Though still clinging to life, it 
was dissolved by King James, A. D. 1624. He had 
made it, and now he unmade it, and entered upon its 
labours. In fact the crown took the place of the cor- 
poration, and sustained to the colony the same relation 
which had been held by that body ; the king continuing 
to appoint the governor and council, and the colonists 
to elect their legislative assembly in pursuance of the 
constitution derived from the corporation. The crown 
deemed it most prudent to confirm to the colony tlie 
popular liberty it had received from its first owners. 

The troubles of Charles I. lefi; him little leisure to 
torment the Virginians ; and by the time that Cromwell 
had run his race, and the English monarchy was re- 
stored, the population of Virginia had so increased in 
number, and were so ardently devoted to their system of 
colonial legislation, that the subsequent British sovereigns, 
down to George III., generally permitted the popular 
legislative assembly to exercise the same authority which 
it had under the corporation. It is only necessary to 
observe farther in this connexion, that the Virginia legis- 
lature were in a continual quarrel with the governors 
sent them by the crown through the one hundred and 
fifty years that preceded the American Revolution. 
But, through all that time, the Virginians jealously 
guai'ded their liberties, and generally considered them- 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 97 

selves entitled to all the rights of Englishmen ; their legis- 
lative assembly being tlieir parliament, and the King of 
England their king. 

We have been the more minute in this detail, inas- 
much as we desired to present a clear and well defined 
view of the agency of a corporation in planting and 
giving form to the oldest of the old thirteen colonies. 
Though the motives of the corporation centered in com- 
mercial gain, yet these motives, by leading to the es- 
tablishment of private property and political privileges, 
contributed directly to the organization of a democracy 
in America. By coming between the crown and the 
colonists, the corporation granted to the people of Vir- 
ginia more liberty than was consistent with the arbitrary 
notions of the Stuart kings. But when the disappointed 
hopes of gain were about to bring the corporation into 
conflict with its colony, and perhaps abridge its liberty, 
an arbitrary king came to the rescue, dissolved the cor- 
poration, and perpetuated tlie democracy that had been 
formed in Virginia. Could any plan have been devised 
by which, under the existing views and motives of men 
in England, a more democratic result could have been 
obtained ? 

In this summary analysis of the doings of the corpo- 
ration, our attention has been drawn away from the sin- 
gular fortunes that attended the colonists themselves. In 
regard to individual character, the age when this work 
of colonization began was a singular age. The world 
was passing, or rather had passed, from the contests of 
chivalry to the contests of interest ; and while a mammoth 
corporation was seeking to enrich itself from the New 
World, the individuals employed to accomplish its de- 
signs were many of them men of the most chivalric cha- 
racter and Cluistian wisdom. To introduce one of these 
I 



98 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

individuals by way of episode may reveal, in a luminous 
view the character of the men by whom the corporation 
for Virginia established its colony. Such an individual- 
izing is also in harmony with our general plan; for 
sometimes a man appears who is the type and represen- 
tative of a whole age, and in whom is imbodied in con- 
centrated energy the spirit that moves through vast 
jnasses of men. Such a man becomes truly a historical 
character. Of such men the world has seen a few ; 
England had her Alfred, Europe her Charlemagne, 
China her wall-building federalist Chihoangti, and Vir- 
ginia her Captain Smith. 

Smith — John Smith — Captain John Smith, was the 
pioneer and ruling spirit of American colonization. By 
nature a gentleman, by profession a soldier, and by 
education a scholar, he imbibed the adventurous spirit 
of his age. An Englishman by birth, and a traveller 
by choice, he sought for military glory in the armies of 
Holland. A cavalier in spirit, from boyhood a lover of 
adventure, he travelled over France and Italy, and 
sought for fame in fighting in the Hungarian armies 
against the Turks. Captured in war, he was sold for a 
slave in the market of Constantinople. With an iron 
collar on his neck, and a flail in his hand, he threshed 
wheat for his Mahometan lord on the plains of Crim 
Tartary. Cruelly oppressed, he slew his master, and 
fled, like Moses, to the wilderness. Wandering over the 
deserts of Russia, he regained his freedom, and again 
drew his sword in the wars on the northern coast of 
Africa. Returning to England, the projected colony in 
Virginia recalled new visions to his ardent spirit ; and em- 
barking with the first emigrants, he landed with them in 
the wilderness on James River. Acquainted with human 
nature in all its forms, and gifted with what John Locke 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 99 

calls " strong sound roundabout common sense," he be- 
came the main pillar in the rising colony. 

The emigrants to the new colony were hard subjects 
to deal with ; many of them being dissolute, broken- 
down, idle vagabonds, real Botany-Bay scape-graces, 
whom the corporation had bought up and shipped for 
America. Thrown among such gentry. Smith found 
use for all his talents and energies. Upon him devolved 
the task of " coaxing on the stubborn ones and pushing 
on the lazy." 

" When you send again," he wrote to the corpo- 
ration, " I entreat you rather send but thirty carpen- 
ters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, 
masons, and diggers-up of trees' roots, well provided, 
than a thousand of such as we have." In this advice 
was contained the main truth of modern political eco- 
nomy, that labour is the true source of wealth. Me- 
chanics and " diggers-up of trees' roots" were to be the 
real colony planters ; this truth, plainly perceived by 
Smith, laid the foundation of colonial prosperity in North 
America. A mania for gold-digging had seized upon 
the colonists ; and during a temporary absence of Smith, 
they left off planting and building, and spent their time 
in shovelling up iron pyrites and washing it for gold. 
The corporation also in England directed him to seek 
for a passage to India by travelling up some stream that 
ran from the northwest. Deriding alike the India and 
gold mania, but willing to travel, he ascended the 
Chickahominy, and explored the country to the Sus- 
quehanna ; he surveyed the waters of the Chesapeake, 
ascended the Potomac, and was the first Englishman 
who trod the barren lands where Washington City now 
stands. Passing from the Chesapeake to the northern 
parts of the territory of the corporation, he visited the 



100 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

harbour of Boston, the Merrimack and Piscataqua, and 
gave such a glowing description of the country, tliat the 
Knglish sovereign conferred upon it the name of New 
England. Returning to Virginia, his energy and good 
sense healed the colonists of their gold-delirium, and 
directed them to the cultivation of the soil. The vene- 
rable trees on James River were hewn down ; the dig- 
gers-up of trees' roots arrived from England, and corn, 
tobacco, and wheat, took the place of the oalc, the 
hickory, and the persimmon. The soil, under his direc- 
tion, became the true gold-mine of the country, and 
he assured his employers, the corporation in England, 
with tlie most profound gravity, that the Pacific Ocean 
could 7iot be reached by sailing up the James River. 

An accidental explosion of gunpowder hiflicted a 
wound which deprived the colony of his guardianship. 
He returned to England ; and the hero who had ex- 
posed his head to the war-club of Powhattan, was ne- 
glected by his employers. The father of American 
colonization is a lastuig witness that corporations are 
bodies without souls. How could such soulless masters 
direct the destinies of democracy in the New World } 
It was impossible. The general plan of Providence no 
longer required the action of such a body ; tlieir mission 
to North America was fulfilled ; and the London com- 
pany was accordingly dissolved in A. D. 1624. 

II. The second attempt by foreign corporations to 
plant colonies in An\erica, was made in New England. 
This region, you will remember, was included in the 
territory granted by King James to his mastodon corpo- 
ration ; but tlie branch of that corporation whose ope- 
rations were to be coninieil to the nortliern part of the 
grant, did nothing. The Loudon company alone suc- 
ceeded, and King James took the ground tluit Uie 



COLONIZATION liV COKPOKATIONS. 101 

northern part of this grant reverted to the crown, on ac- 
count of the neglect of the company, whose business it 
w\is to plant colonies in it. He accordingly, in A. D. 
1620, created another huge corporation, to which he 
transferred the soil and sovereignty of North America 
lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels of 
latitude, and named in the charter. New England. This 
comprehensive grant included all the country from the St. 
Lawrence to the southern border of Pennsylvania, and 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Such were the limits 
of New England. The corporation to which this im- 
mense territory was given was known as the Plymouth 
Company, so called from Plymouth in England. But 
at the date of the charter, the only inhabitants in the 
territories it described, were Indians and wild beasts. 
The charter directed, in substance, that the Indians 
should be Christianized and the wild beasts caught for 
the benefit of the corporation. All the bears, deer, 
foxes, beavers, yjA'//, and Indians, were transferred to the 
<'ompany, to be used for their benefit. If the charter 
had only transferred to the corporation the soil and land 
animals, New England might hnve had a diiferent des- 
tiny ; but the exclusive right to catch fish in the rivers 
and along the coast of New England, proved the ruin 
of tlie corporation. The House of Commons opposed 
the monopoly of fish. The king resisted their inter- 
ference, on the ground that America was his own pro- 
perty, and not subject to the control of parliament. A 
contest ensued, which rendered the corporation odious, 
and paralyzed all its energies ; and it made only a few 
expensive but fruitless efibrts to colonize its territories. 

But it was not by corporations that the roots and 
brambles on the Penobscot and Connecticut were to be 
conjured out of the ground. Other iniluences were des- 



I* 



102 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tined to plant New England. The despotic power of 
the corporation was feared ; and so many obstructions 
were thrown in its way by the commons on account of 
the exclusive fishing privilege, that it did little more 
than grant away its lands to subordinate companies and 
individuals ; but it went to the work of giving away its 
territory with profuse liberality. To Mason and Gorges 
it granted Maine ; to Rosewell and others it granted 
Massachusetts ; to the Earl of Warwick it granted Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island ; to Mason it granted New 
Hampshire ; and to the Pilgrim Fathers it gave a place 
for their colony. Having, by these grants, stript itself in 
the space of eighteen years of much of its immense ter- 
ritory, the Plymouth corporation sank into a lethargy, 
and disappeared from the world. Its charter was re- 
voked in A. D. 1639, and its remaining lands, embracing 
the regions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, 
and the country west of them to the Pacific, reverted to 
the crown. 

So far as any effective colonization was concerned, 
the Plymouth corporation was a failure. It was in its 
origin a mercantile company, established for the sake of 
gain, and having its immense territory in America as 
the place of its operations. New England was, however, 
destined to be the theatre of a colonization springing 
from other influences than those of gain. That these 
influences might have free scope, the mercantile com- 
pany distributed its lands, and conferred rights upon the 
colonists which the crown would not have granted. Its 
work was then done, democracy no longer needed its 
agency, and it was laid aside. 

III. The third attempt at colonization by a foreign 
corporation was made by the Swedes on the Delaware. 
Sweden had been raised by the talents of Gustavus 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 103 

Adolphus to the first rank among European nations. His 
superior intellect saw the benefits to be derived fi'om 
commerce ; and at his recommendation, though not till 
after his fiiU at Lutzen, a commercial company was in- 
corporated fov the purpose of trading westwaid from Eu- 
rope, and planting colonies in America. About the year 
1638, this company sent a band of colonists, consisting 
of Swedes and Fins, who entered the Delaware bay. 
They purchased from the natives the soil on the western 
side of that river, from the sea to the falls at Trenton ; 
and began a colony named New Sweden. This terri- 
tory included the present state of Delaware, and the 
south-eastern counties of Pennsylvania. The principal 
settlements of the Swedes were near Newcastle and Phi- 
ladelphia ; at these points an industrious and religious 
people began the work of colonization. Magnificent 
visions had floated before the mind's eye of the great 
Swedish Gustavus, when he looked from the battle-fields 
of Europe, to a Swedish colony in America, and saw in 
the New World a happy and truly religious people. 
Had that hero been spared, New Sweden on the Dela- 
ware might have become the centre of a wise and vir- 
tuous nation. But a commercial corporation having the 
destinies of the colony in its hands, and not wishing to 
defend what it might be unprofitable to preserve, per- 
mitted it to fall into other hands. In A.D. 1655, about 
seventeen years from its foundation. New Sweden was 
conquered by the Dutch, and annexed to their colony of 
New Netherlands. 

Here ended the colonizing efforts of another corpo- 
ration. 

IV. The fourth attempt at colonization by a foreign 
corporation, was made in the valley of the Hudson, by 
the Dutch West India Company. 



104 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Sailing in the employment of the Hollanders, Sir 
Henry Hudson, in A. D. 1610, discovered the Delaware 
Bay and Hudson river. Not being able to reach the 
East Indies by the North River, he returned to Europe ; 
and Holland, by virtue of his discovery, claimed the 
country drained by the Hudson and Delaware, a terri- 
tory to which she gave the name of New Netherlands. 
In a short time a few adventurers from Amsterdam 
found their way into the valley of the Hudson, and 
opened a traffic with Uie natives ; but Holland, in its 
national capacity, did not undertake the colonization of 
this North American discovery. Her maritime opera- 
tions, though very extensive, were in general committed 
to chartered companies ; and, pursuant to this corpo- 
ration system, she created, in A, D. 1618, a Dutch 
West India Company, to which she gave, among privi- 
leges, the exclusive right, so far as she could give it, to 
plant colonies on the coast of America from Greenland 
to Cape Horn. No Hollander, unless by permission of 
this corporation, could traffic or settle along this exten- 
sive coast. 

To this company was committed the soil and sove- 
reignty of the New Netherlands, with authority to plant 
colonies and govern them. Holland, as a nation, re- 
served no control over the colonists, nor did she under- 
take to defend them against foreign enemies ; they were 
to look to the corporation for their political privileges 
and protection. 

Like other commercial corporations, the West India 
Company aimed solely at gain, and more particularly at 
the gain to be acquired by depredations on the South 
American commerce of Spain, the nation with which 
Holland was then waging its war of independence. To 
plant colonies was only desirable in so far as it would 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 105 

enrich the corporation. The New Netherlands presented 
a prospect of colonial gain, and the company estaljlished 
colonies on tlie Delaware and Hudson. To render 
them productive, it was necessary to have them well 
populated ; and to induce an influx of population, it was 
necessary to present motives to settle the territory. Ac- 
cordingly, to him who should plant a colony of fifty 
persons, the company offered a tract of land sixteen or 
twenty miles square, of which he should be the owner 
and governor or Patroon. Many settlements were made 
under this provision, of which the anti-rent troubles in 
New York are the fruits. The New Netherlands thus 
became the theatre of speculation, and plantations were 
made on the Delaware, along the coast of New Jersey, 
and in the valley of the Hudson. 

But the colonists, the real workers, "the diggers-up 
of trees' roots," in the New Netherlands, had neither 
property in the soil nor political privileges. The pa- 
troons of the large estates were the owners of the soil, 
and the company had the government of the colony in 
its own hands; it enacted the laws, appointed the go- 
vernors, and gathered a tolerable harvest of profit ; but 
the people, the mass — what mass there was — had no- 
thing to do with the government. Such an arrange- 
ment was not consistent with the creation or growth of 
democratic government; and the institutions of Eu- 
rope, in the most intense forms of their servility, seemed 
on the eve of being transplanted to America, and firmly 
rooted in the rich valley of the Hudson. 

Many of the governors sent by the company were, 
it is true, excellent men, among whom we find the 
good-hearted Walter Van Twiller, and the worthy Stuy- 
vesant. But something more than good governors was 
needed to make a democratic government. The cor- 



106 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

poration had broiiglit colonists to the country ; and 
when that work was accompHshed, the connexion of the 
company with the coU>ny was ready to be dissolved. 
But that tlieir dissolution might promote tlie cause of 
free government, it was necessary that some preliminary 
measures should prepare the way and put the colonists 
in a ccMulition to profit by a change of masters. Ac- 
cordingly, throughout the New Netherlands an attempt 
was made to establish a popular assembly similar to the 
one which had been established in Virginia. Deputies 
from each village in the colony assembled, and desired 
to obtain a share in tlie government ; but Stuyvesant, 
who then held tlie reins, had not the wisdom of Yeard- 
ley, the mild and patriotic governor, by whose con- 
nivance Virginia became a popular government. He 
obstinately resisted the movement of the people, and in- 
formed them that his authorhy to rule the New Nether- 
lands was derived "from God and the West India 
Company, and not from a few ignorant subjects." His 
conduct was approved by his employers. 

This was the critical hour of free government. Had 
Stuyvesant granted the request of the colonists — had the 
West India Company acted with tlie prudence of tlie 
London Company — the New^ Netherlands might long 
have continued under the control of a corporation. But 
this arrangement might have stood in the way of the ul- 
timate liberation and union of the American colonies. 
Holland, in the valley of the Hudson, \\oidd have sepa- 
rated New England from tlie south. Happily Stuyvesant 
was not Yeardley. When he inlbrmed the colonists that 
the source of his authority was God and the West In- 
dia Company, the people rei>lied in substance, that God 
had conferred upon them also certain rights, which they 
intended to maintain. This lesson they had been taught 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 107 

in part by their Puritan neighbours, and, in pari, by the 
innate democratic nature of man, which in America lias 
always been gifted with a voice. 

After the refusal to admit the people to a share in the 
government, the colonists became desirous to free them- 
selves from tlie dominion of tlie corporation ; and lent 
a willing ear to propositions from the English to subject 
themselves to England, on condition that they shoukl be 
admitted to a share in the management of the colonial go- 
vernment. The democracies of New England were too 
alluring to permit a neighbouring nation to remain the 
boors and serfs of a foreign corporation. 

While tlie New Netherlands were internally in this 
state of agitation, they were exposed to encroachments 
on the north and on the south. Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut were, by their charters, permitted to extend west- 
ward to the Pacific ; but if these states extended west- 
ward to the Pacific, where would the New Netherlands 
be ? On this subject quarrels arose between tlie New 
England colonies and the West India Company. Eng- 
land was at peace with Holland ; but to strike a blow at 
a powerful commercial rival, English ships of war were 
despatched to the Hudson. The colonists of the New 
Netherlands refused to risk life in the contest. They 
desired to make no sacrifices for the benefit of their mas- 
ters, the West India Company, and that company was 
unable to protect them. To the corporation the New 
Netherlands were merely property ; and upon an esti- 
mate of the cost of defence, tlie company resolved to 
preserve what tliey could by negotiation, and lose the 
rest. The New Netherlands accordingly surrendered to 
the English, upon condition that the colonists should have 
their private property confirmed to them, and be per- 
mitted to have a representative assembly similar to that 



108 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

of Virginia. The English king accordingly took the 
place of the West India Company in A. 1). 1664, and 
the colonists obtained the privilege of freemen. 

Such was the office performed by a foreign corpora- 
tion in the colonization of the valleys of the Hudson and 
Delaware. Ridicule has been directed against the Dutch 
governors and the early settlers of this region. But there 
were most worthy and patriotic men among them ; and, 
under a better system of colonial government, they would 
have been esteemed the worthy fathers of a rising nation. 
Liberty among the masses of men was, however, un- 
known in Holland. That republic was a republic of 
nobles and commercial cities, and not a republic whose 
liberties extended to the " diggers-up of trees' roots." 
The enslaved class, the boors of Holland, were, how- 
ever, the men most useful among the trees and saplings 
and bushes of the New World. But when they came 
to the Hudson they were still enslaved, and only gained 
the first state of freedom when the colony passed into 
the hands of the English, — a transfer in which the colo- 
nists gladly acquiesced. 

V. The last attempt at colonization by a foreign cor- 
poration was made in Georgia. This attempt I mention 
here by way of contrast with those already enumerated. 
The corporations which attempted to colonize Virginia, 
New England, and the New Netherlands, were com- 
mercial companies, whose end was gain, and whose 
means were colonies. But the corporation which com- 
menced Georgia originated in charity, and was designed 
to perform a work of protection and benevolence. It 
was in A. D. 1732 that George II. chartered a company 
to plant a colony between the Savannah and Altamaha 
rivers. At the head of this corporation stood the hu- 
mane and sagacious Oglethorpe. The work to be per- 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 109 

formed by this corporation was a work of defence, inas- 
much as it was the design of the English monarch to 
plant a colony which would be a protection on the south- 
west to the other American plantations : it was also a 
work of charity, inasmuch as it was the design of Ogle- 
thorpe and his companions to remove to the colony the 
impoverished debtors who were languishing in the jails 
of England. The members of the corporation were in 
reality trustees for this charitable purpose. But, like the 
commercial corporations, the company for Georgia were 
the legislators and governors of the colony : the colo- 
nists themselves were to have no voice in making their 
laws, or in executing them. How would stich a project 
harmonize with the general plan of establishing a de- 
mocracy in America? The facts that accompanied the 
work of Oglethorpe in Georgia answer the question. 

Oglethorpe was appointed governor of the colony, 
and accompanied the emigrants to tlieir new home ; but 
he was soon called upon, like his great prototype of Vir- 
ginia, to exert himself in "coaxing on the stubborn ones 
and pushing on the lazy." The sweepnigs of English 
prisons made indiiferent colonists ; and, in order to min- 
gle them with characters of a more elevated nature, in- 
vitations were given, and inducements held out to the 
adventurous spirits of Europe, to make their home in 
the rising colony of Georgia. In consequence of these 
invitations, other colonists arrived. From Germany 
came Moravians, under the patronage of their leader, 
the worthy Count Zinzendorf, and settled on the Sa- 
vannah ; from England came Methodists, headed by 
Wesley and Whitelield ; and from Scotland came High- 
landers, with their plaids, their targets, and their broad- 
swords, and settled on the Altamaha. Silk, corn, and 
rice, were grown on the sea-coasts, and along the valleys 
K 



IIQ ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

of Georgia ; and Oglethorpe became the guardian and 
father of the colony, fought the Indians on the west, 
the Spaniards on the south, prohibited the introduction 
of negro slaves, and maintained comparative hai'mony 
among tlie discordant materials under his charge. 

Notwithstanding these favourable auspices, the co- 
lony languished. Oglethorpe returned to England. The 
colonists were turbulent and dissatisfied. The corpora- 
tion grew careless of the trust committed to it. Its 
work was done when it had planted and fostered a seed- 
ing for democracy ; and in A. D. 1752, wearied with 
its profitless, thankless task, it surrendered its charter, 
and the crown took its place in the government of die 
colony. The colonists, upon tlie change, were admitted 
to a share in tlie government ; and by a legislative as- 
sembly enacted their laws, with the approbation of a go- 
vernor appointed by the king. 

"We have now reviewed the several attempts at colo- 
nization in America which were made by foreign corpo- 
rations. The successive failure of each of these attempts 
intimates very significantly, that the establishment of 
democracy in America required the speedy abrogation 
of the government of corporations. I say that demo- 
cracy required the speedy abrogation of such govern- 
ment ; for in order to establish a prosperous republic 
in America, it was necessary to have prosperous colonies 
of which it should be composed, and in which men 
might be drilled and schooled in self-government. But 
tlie government of a mercantile corporation is adverse 
to colonial prosperity, and does not admit a large 
amount of liberty to the colonists. It is, perhaps, the 
worst of all colonial governments ; has the least sym- 
pathy with its subjects ; and is in general the most hos- 
tile to the interests and democratic notions of the people. 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. Ill 

When we allege these objections against the domi- 
nion of corporations, we must not be understood as as- 
serting that tliey have always in all their forms and phases 
been hostile, and ai"e in their nature hostile, to popular 
government. The contrary has often occurred. In tlie 
march of tlie European race from isolated barbarism to 
their present civilization, corporations were agencies of 
efficient and essential service to liberty. In tlie middle 
age of European history, the merchants and tradesmen 
of a town, by uniting in a corporation, could resist the 
rapacity of barbarous chiefs. When nations began to be 
formed in Europe, the kings, by incorporating towns, 
raised up a power to balance the turbulent nobility. In 
these cases corporations served the cause of good go- 
vernment ; they aided to bring up the popular masses ; 
tliey introduced the third estate — the commons — into 
the legislature ; and what little participation tlie people 
had in the government they derived through corpora- 
tions. So far they were promotive of democracy. 

But there was another class, called commercial cor- 
porations, which had an opposite influence. When 
commerce winged her way over the oceans, and re- 
vealed the riches of distant countries, commercial opera- 
tions were committed to chartered companies. In Swe- 
den, in France, in England, in Holland, and in other 
countries, corporations were created and clothed with 
authority to enjoy the soil and sovereignty of distant re- 
gions, to colonize them, to traffic to them, and to make 
gain from them. East India Companies, West India 
Companies, South Sea Companies, and many others of 
all grades and powers, attempted to monopolize the 
commerce of the world, and, as subservient to this end, 
to colonize vast territories. Such corporations have an 
influence adverse to the democracy of their colonies. 



112 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The hope of gain being the ruUng principle — the sun in 
the heaven of the corporate system — the rights of the 
colonists, both civil and political, are estimated in gold 
and silver. If by respecting these rights more gain can 
be probably made, they will be respected. This oc- 
curred in Virginia, when the London company gave that 
colony a liberal and written constitution. If, on the 
contrary, the corporation believes that by unconditional 
servitude its colony will yield the most profit, uncondi- 
tional servitude will be imposed, and maintained if pos- 
sible. This occurred in the New Netherlands when 
Stuyvesant repelled the request of the people to be ad- 
mitted to a share in the colonial government, by inform- 
ing them that he derived his authority from God and the 
West India Company. The same event has occurred in 
Hindostan, where the British East India Company has 
established an absolute authority over one hundred mil- 
lions of subjects, wdio serve the purpose of colonists. 

From these considerations you will scarcely hesitate 
to conclude, that the establishment of republicanism in 
America required, among other preliminaries, that the 
colonies should enjoy freedom from the government of 
such companies. We accordingly find that foreign cor- 
porations failed in all their attempts to establish and go- 
vern colonies in North America. The long continuance 
of the Hudson Bay Company, which has already lived 
through nearly two centuries, is not an exception to this 
assertion ; for that is a trading, and not a colonizing 
corporation. 

Such were the events connected with the attempts 
made by foreign corporations to plant and govern colo- 
nies in America. Do not these events exhibit a pros- 
pective reference to a future republic ? Were they not 



COLONIZATION BY CORPORATIONS. 113 

contrivances, means, agencies, expedients, all adapted 
and providentially designed and directed to establish 
popular government? Such an end, such a design, ac- 
counts for these events. No other does. 

We will, in the next lecture, resume the consider- . 
ation of the other attempts at American colonization. 

K* 



LECTURE IV. 

FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 

Attempts at American Colonization by feudal nobles — I. First of 
these attempts in Maryland — Plan of Calvert : liberty of conscience 
and political privileges — Results of his attempt — II. Attempt at 
feudal colonization in New Jersey and New York ; its failure — III. 
Attempt at feudal colonization in Pennsylvania; its character — Be- 
comes merged in democracy — Penn, and his plan for a colony — 
IV. Attempt at feudal colonization in the Carolinas ; its results — 
Locke's constitutions — Chai-acter and results of all these attempts — 
Attempts of the English sovereigns to put themselves at the head 
of American colonization — The two ideas which were the cause of 
these royal attempts: I. Inalienable sovereignty; II. Perpetual 
allegiance — These ideas unsuited to the condition of affairs in the 
colonies — Successfully resisted by the colonists — Failure of the royal 
attempts to control the colonies. 

In our last lecture we examined the attempts at colo- , 
nization in North America which were made by foreign 
corporations, and exhibited these attempts in their pros- 
pective reference to the organization of our republic. 
We now come to the other efforts which were made to 
colonize America, and it remains to examine them in 
their relations to democratic government. The next of 
these efforts was connected with the feudal system, and 
in regard to them we have the general statement, as fol- 
lows : second, 

FEUDAL NOBLES TRIED TO PLANT AND GOVERN COLONIES IN 

NORTH AMERICA. 

By feudal nobles, in this connexion, I wish to desig- 
nate those individuals whose American possessions were 
in the nature of feudal principalities. Some of these 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 115 

individuals, as Calvert and Carteret, enjoyed noble titles 
in Europe ; and others of them, as William Penn, were 
in reality feudal nobles by virtue of their American ter- 
ritories. To give a passing idea of the usual connexion 
between a feudal prince and his people, we may remark 
that in the middle age of European history, the- landed 
possessions of a chief constituted a little kingdom or 
principality, over which he ruled. The tenants of his 
lands were his subjects, and from their labours and rents 
he derived his revenue. For them he established his 
courts or legal tribunals, made laws, appointed judges, 
and, in a word, embraced, in his single person, the 
legislative, judicial, and executive branches of govern- 
ment. Such a chief was frequently and usually bound 
to some kind of obedience and service to another and 
higher chief, and that higher chief to another still more 
powerful. But over the tenants — "the diggers-up of 
trees' roots," — in his territory, each chief was a king, 
or rather acted the part of a king towards them ; and 
they obtained from him such rights and privileges as 
his weakness or humanity induced him to yield, or as 
their power could enforce. This subordination of one 
chief to another constituted the feudal system ; and this 
sovereignty of a chief over his principality, while he 
owed service or obedience to another chief, constituted 
a feudal noble. 

Such a system of authority and dependence would 
seem to have little sympathy or community of feeling 
and interest with popular institutions ; nor is it very ap- 
parent in what manner such a system could be pressed 
into the service of republicanism. Feudal nobles did, 
however, attempt to establish colonies in North Ame- 
rica, and endeavoured to fashion them after the model 
and similitude of feudal principalities. But the work, in 



116 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

several cases, fell into the hands of men who were im- 
bued with an excellent spirit, as were Penn and Lord 
Baltimore, and whose willingness to promote the welfare 
of the human race, and other circumstances of great in- 
fluence, very materially modified the feudalism that was 
imported to the New World. So much was it modified 
that it lost its distinctive European form, and in its new 
home speedily yielded its position and its works to the 
growing power of democracy. Let us examine a little 
into the attempts at feudal colonization in America, and 
we will then perceive how they became subservient to 
republicanism. 

L The first of these attempts was made in the colo- 
nization of Maryland. By the dissolution of the Lon- 
don company in A. D. 1624, the English crown became 
reinvested with its original title to the territory which it 
had granted to the corporation for colonizing Virginia. 
Out of this region King Charles in A. D. 1632 granted 
to Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, the country be- 
tween the Potomac and the fortieth parallel of latitude ; 
a region which received tlie name Maryland in honour 
of Henrietta Maria, the English queen. To erect a 
principality and become its feudal lord, was the political 
part of Calvert's design in procuring tlie grant ; and, in 
accordance with this object, the charter conveyed to him 
the soil and sovereignty of the territory, and gave him 
the nominal place of lord of the domain. The yearly 
rent of two Indian arrows was the service by which the 
Prince of Maryland acknowledged the sovereignty of 
the English king. Except this badge of obedience, 
Maryland was an independent principality, and Calvert 
its owner and sovereign, whose authority extended to 
carve out manors and inferior principalities within liis 
territories, and to establish chiefs or nobles subordinate 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 117 

to himself. But beside the political part of his design, 
Calvert had another and a higher object in planting the 
colony of Maryland. He looked abroad upon the con- 
dition of the world ; saw the privations of his fellow- 
men, and their earnest yearnings for religious and po- 
litical liberty, and resolved to establish ^government 
where these noble desires could be gratified. This re- 
solution materially modified the feudalism of his Ame- 
rican principality, and liberty of conscience and political 
privileges — those two leading elements of our republican 
system — were secured to the colonists of Maryland. A 
word upon each of these provisions will show that the 
plan of Lord Baltimore, though it contemplated a feudal 
colony, contained, nevertheless, the living seeds and 
very core of democratic government. 

(1.) The first of the provisions just named, which 
Calvert introduced in his plan of the Maryland colony, 
viz., liberty of conscience in religion, was a new and, 
in those days, most extraordinary regulation to introduce 
into a government. I call it new, because no such cha- 
rity, or, rather, no such wisdom and justice had before 
his time been exercised in Christendom. It was reserved 
for Sir George Calvert, who was in religion a Catholic, 
and at heart a lover of mankind, to insert in the charter 
of a projected government, a provision that no man pro- 
fessing Christianity should be molested for his sectaiian 
preferences. Christianity was established as the religion 
of the colony, but Catholics and Protestants of all de- 
nominations were left in the full enjoyment of their re- 
ligious faith. We give to Calvert the credit of an- 
nouncing to the world this plan of toleration ; for it was 
by him that the charter for Maryland was drawn up. 
The provision itself was also an extraordinary regula- 
tion in those times. To appreciate it according to its 



118 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

merits, we must draw our attention away from the tole- 
rant opinions of the present day, and enter into the 
feelings and religious views of the men who lived in the 
times of James I. In that "lang syne" time, now two 
centuries and a quarter past, political ideas, and the 
whole current of religious thought, which had come down 
through many generations, were directed to an exclusive 
sectarianism in Christianity. That age was most strin- 
gently sectarian in regard to the religion of the state. 
At the very time, too, when Calvert was planning for 
his American principality an equality of all Christian 
denominations, the continent of Europe was covered by 
the surges and foam of the Thirty Years' religious war ; 
and, in the same year in which his charter was dated 
(1632), Gustavus Adolphus, the hero of the Protestant 
world, perished in the hour of his glorious victory over 
the armies of the Catholic league. Was it not an 
extraordinary movement in such an age, and at such 
a juncture, to lay the foundation of religious liberty ? 
Yet, this was the movement which Calvert made in be- 
half of his projected colony of Maryland. Had he done 
no more for mankind than give prominence to the 
single idea of a tolerant Christian state, he would have 
merited the gratitude of our republic. For our govern- 
ment has established in substantial, practical, glorious 
reality, what he projected for his own territory. 

(2.) The second provision which modified the feudal 
character of Maryland, was the establishment of a repre- 
sentative legislature. I have just mentioned that the 
tenants on the land of a feudal lord frequently obtained 
from their master certain rights and privileges, which 
were exacted either by their power or flowed from his 
generosity. These privileges often extended to a con- 
siderable share in the administration of the government 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 119 

of their lord : such as voting money for his use ; giving 
their assent to the changes which he proposed, &c. In 
the projected colony of Maryland a similar liberality ap- 
peared, and, though it was feudal in form, the privileges 
of the inhabitants were recognised with much precision ; 
for Calvert had defined in his charter the limits of his 
authority, and the rights of the colonists. No tax was 
to be imposed without their consent, and no law made 
without their approbation : in a word, the colonists were 
to be admitted to a liberal share in the government. 
When the government was organized. Lord Baltimore, 
or his deputy, was governor ; a council of colonists, 
summoned by special invitation of the governor, formed 
an upper house, and representatives elected by the peo- 
ple formed a lower house of legislation ; bills were 
passed by the two houses, and when sanctioned by the 
governor became the law of the colony. These demo- 
cratic provisions rendered the charter of Maryland dear 
to the inhabitants ; they were proposed by Calvert — • 
they came not from tire rising spirit of oppressed feudal 
slaves, but flowed from the wisdom and justice of a 
man who delighted to see mankind enjoy their ardent 
and generous desires. 

These two provisions, viz., liberty of conscience and 
a representative assembly, were most material modifica- 
tiqns of the feudalism of the colony. They were, in 
fact, the corner-stones of our republic, the powerful sup- 
port of the whole fabric. Maryland, it is true, became 
in some features a feudal principality ; the civil offices 
were in the gift of Lord lialtimore ; in his name the 
laws were executed, and justice administered ; he was 
the prince and hereditary governor of the colony ; but 
the liberty of conscience and the popular assembly were 
democratic elements which absorbed the feudalism, and 



120 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

prepared the colonists for the full enjoyment of repub- 
licanism. 

/ Calvert himself was not permitted to enter into this 
land of promise and hope. He died before an emigrant 
reached his new principality ; and his titles, possessions, 
the colony of Maryland, and a portion of his spirit, de- 
scended to his son. The inheritor of the estates and 
virtues of the father, by a long life of wisdom and per- 
severance extending over forty years, firmly established 
the colony. 

But the sunshine of peace did not continue without 
interruption upon the rising province. Difficulties fre- 
quently occurred. The crown for a time usurped the 
government of the colony ; but with a few interruptions 
Maryland preserved its democratic elements down to 
the Revolution. Through all this tract of time, the peo- 
ple of that colony were reducing to practice the first 
lessons of republicanism which had been taught them by 
the founder of the colony. They sometimes attempted 
to dispense with their feudal lord, but the time for abso- 
lute freedom had not yet arrived. The feudal element 
of a hereditary prince, therefore, continued to co-operate 
with the democratic element of a legislative assembly. 

We do not say that this attempt at feudal coloniza- 
tion was a failure ; but the features of the colony were 
so modified, that feudalism was lost in republicanism. 
Democracy availed itself of the benevolence of Calvert, 
and while it lived in the freshness of its own youtliful 
vigour, it paid respect to the memory of the worthy and 
excellent founder of Maryland, and left a few of the 
harmless forms of a feudal principality remain on the 
shores of the Chesapeake. 

II. The second attempt at feudal colonization to 
which I would call your attention, was made in the New 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 121 

Netherlands, or in that tract of country which contains 
the present states of New Jersey and New York. When 
this extensive province, which embraced the valleys of 
the Hudson and Delaware, was taken from Holland, it 
was transferred by the English king to the Duke of York. 
This prince, who figures in English history a^ the tyran- 
nical and fugitive James II., was authorized by the royal 
grant to hold and govern this territory as a feudal prin- 
cipality. Reserving to himself the present state of New 
York, he granted to two noblemen, Carteret and Berke- 
ley, that portion of this possession which now composes 
the state of New Jersey. The New Netherlands were 
thus divided, but each division was subjected to a similar 
kind of authority, and attempts were made to colonize 
and govern them as feudal principalities. Let us look 
a little into the success and results of these attempts, 
beginning with New Jersey. 

The hope of gain, combined with the pride of territo- 
rial sovereignty, induced the proprietors of New Jersey 
to make vigorous exertions to bring inhabitants into their 
projected colony. Knowing the allurements of popular 
government, they gave to their province a very liberal 
constitution. The two democratic provisions established 
in Maryland reappeared in Jersey — all Christian sects 
had full liberty of conscience, and a house of represent- 
atives was provided, in which the colonists were ad- 
mitted to a share in the government. The policy of these 
provisions soon became manifest; for immediately it 
was whispered abroad in the world that the Quaker, 
the Puritan, and the Republican, could enjoy in New 
Jersey their rights of conscience and their theory of go- 
vernment ; and emigrants came, hoping to obtain the 
benefit of these privileges. Puritans came from New 
England, Quakers from Old England, Calvinists from 

L 



122 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

llolliuul, and IlcpuMicans IVoni Scollantl ; the soa-ooast 
and valleys of New Jersey soon teemed wilh a numerous 
population j and for a time all tilings went on prosper- 
ously. 

]iy-and-by, however, Berkeley and Carteret began to 
exhibit the feudal side of tlie charter. They sent to 
collect the rents which they had reserved in transferring 
lands to individuals in jnivate jiroperty. But in tliis 
they were llatly rel'used ; for the colonists had come to 
enjoy liberty, not to pay rents. A series of contentions 
arose between the pro])rietors and their tenants ; and it 
Avas soon found that there were strong anti-renters in 
those days as well as in these. Democracy in govern- 
ment and toleration in religion had, in the meantime, 
taken deep root in tlie minds of the adventurous men 
who came to be the " diggers-up of trees' roots" in 
New Jersey. Various and unavailing expedients were 
resorted to by the i)roprietors to preserve their authority 
and collect their revenue. They divided the province, 
and formed an East Jersey and a West Jersey ; but still 
they could not maintain their authority. 'l'h(>y sold their 
rights of soil and sovereignty to well-meaning, honest 
Quakers ; but neither could tliese iloers of justice and 
lovers of peace maintain their feudal sovereignty over 
the sturdy yeomen of their territories. There was only 
one condition upon which the people would be con- 
tented: and that was tlie condition of full liberty to 
manage tlieir own affairs in their own way. They con- 
tended against all forms of restriction from external au- 
thority, and particularly against the feudal rights which 
were asserted over them. 

At last, wearied wilh the fruitl(\ss quarrel, the pro- 
prietors of New Jersey trauslerreil their rights of sove- 
reignly to the English crown ; and Queen Aune, who 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 123 

then swayed the Ens^lish sceptre, united the Jerseys Into 
one colony, nnd it became a royal province. In this 
political condition it received a governor and conncil 
from England, who, in conjunction with a legislative 
body elected by the people, made the laws and admi- 
nistered the government. 

In this attempt at feudal colonization, the emigrants 
to New Jersey exhibited a more refractory spirit than 
had been manifested in Maryland. The attempt, how- 
ever, developed the elements of popular government, 
and exhibited the democratic ideas which governed the 
conduct of the colonists. 

In New York, matters took a position apparently less 
favourable to liberty. That province was reserved for 
twenty years in feudal subjection to its lord proprietor, 
the Duke of York. Promises of political privileges had 
been made to the colonists to induce them to shake off 
the yoke of their masters, the Dutch West India Com- 
pany, and place themselves under the protection of 
England. But when tlie valley of the Hudson was set 
apart for a feudal principality, these promises were for- 
gotten, and the province continued under tlie slavery of 
an arbitrary lord. No rejiresentatives of the people were 
admitted to a share in the government : the jjovernor 
of the Duke of York, and his council, were lawgivers 
and judges, and constituted the entire government of 
the province. When the people demanded a legislative 
assembly chosen by tliemselves, their feudal lord stated 
divers objections to such bodies ; among which was the 
short and very intelligible one, that " he could see no 
use for them." 

Events in another quarter of the world, however, 
prepared the way for admitting the colonists of New 
York to a share in their government. A change of dy- 



124 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

nasty was effected in England : the Duke of York had 
ascended the English throne ; and, after overthrowing 
many of the liberal institutions of his country because 
" he could see no use for them," he provoked an op- 
position which precipitated him from power and chased 
him from his kingdom. When that revolution was com- 
pleted, his province in America renounced his sove- 
reignty, and proclaimed the new English king, William 
III.; the crown took the government of New York, 
and the feudal principality became a royal province. 
The consequences of the change were, that New York 
obtained a house of representatives, and her colonists 
were instructed practically in the same democratic school 
which had been established in the other colonies. 

III. The third attempt at feudal colonization in Ame- 
rica was undertaken in Pennsylvania. The eastern part 
of this province had been included in the New Nether- 
lands, and consequently was embraced in the principality 
of the Duke of York ; but by purchase from him and by 
charter from Charles II., William Penn in A. D. 1682 
acquired the soil and sovereignty of the province of 
Pennsylvania, and proceeded to erect it into a princi- 
pality. 

As the attempt at feudal organization was here made 
by the best of men, the origin and fortunes of Pennsyl- 
vania, in its colonial- life, exhibited all that feudalism 
could do for liberty. In Pennsylvania, as in Virginia 
and Maryland, the life and character of one individual 
was a luminous commentary upon the colonial history. 
Instead of going into the more dry details of colonial 
organization to show what feudalism did in Pennsyl- 
vania, let us arrive at the same result in another way. 
Let us look at the plan of the colony in connexion with 
the life and character of its founder ; let us go behind 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 125 

the curtain ; let us see the secret springs which moved 
the actors ; and we can then form a correct estimate of 
what feudalism did accomplish and was capable of ac- 
complishing in the organization of our republic. 

William Penn gave a province to our nation, and 
gained a reputation as enduring as our republic. At- 
tached to the Society of Friends, he embraced their 
doctrines with an ardour and an intelligence which have 
seldom been surpassed. Educated at an English uni- 
versity, he became acquainted with the political system 
of Europe ; and wishing to study humanity in its actual 
developements, he travelled abroad. Desirous of making 
converts to the creed of his sect, he preached and 
taught the people in Holland and along the Rhine. Be- 
lieving that God is to be loved because he is God, and 
virtue to be practised because it is virtue, he abhorred 
all laws forcing men to believe a particular creed. Ac- 
knowledging, with the founder of his sect, that God in 
the soul is the standard of truth, he maintained the doc- 
trine that the human race have equal rights. Asserting 
that, in private virtue and public conduct, men are di- 
rected by a divine illumination, he proclaimed freedom 
as the birthright of his race. In his creed, freedom was 
an essential element of man's nature : without it, men 
cease to be men. These doctrines, the product of 
thinking minds, have circulated from Penn and Barclay 
through the philosophies of Europe. Those humble 
Quakers struck out forms of thought which have been 
the model and the marrow of the most intellectualized 
systems of modern times. 

These elemental truths were the basis not only of the 
religious, but also of the political system of Penn. From 
the relationship of man to the Creator ; from the divinity 
that is within us, he arrived at the political creed which 



126 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

teaches man's right to share in his own government. 
From the divine illumination of man he reasoned out 
the utter unrighteousness of religious intolerance. He 
believed in man's capacity to enjoy and exercise re- 
ligious rights, political rights, and civil rights. In a 
word, he had faith in humanity ; and adopted the Pro- 
testantism of politics, which teaches that man can go- 
vern himself, and of right ought to govern himself, in- 
dependently of the hereditary claims of kings, and of 
their pretended divine right. 

Despairing of realizing in Europe his glorious visions 
of the freedom of the human race, he turned his eyes to 
the wilderness of America. Attached to a sect that was 
persecuted by a licentious court, he sought for a region 
of the Western World, where religion should be free from 
the bulls of an established church, and government ex- 
empt from the curse of a corrupt monarch. His pur- 
chase and charter made him the owner or proprietor of 
the region west of the Delaware river, contained in the 
present states of Delaware and Pennsylvania. In 1682, 
he came to his wilderness territory. 

But what kind of a government would this man of 
liberty and peace erect ? How could he be feudal lord 
and his tenants freemen ? His actions in the New World 
harmonized with his previous character, and show that 
he was disposed to respect the rights of all men. From 
the Indians he purchased their claim to the soil, and laid 
the foundation of his province in justice ; the counties 
composing tire present state of Delaware were erected 
into a government ; Philadelphia was laid out, and the 
organization of Pennsylvania was commenced. 

True to his religious creed and polhical faith, he es- 
tablished a most liberal form of government, and his 
faith in humanity caused him to leave tlie colonists much 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 127 

to their own direction. His provisions for his projected 
colony were such as the following : 

Full toleration was provided for all Christian denomi- 
nations : 

A legislature, consisting of a council and house of 
representatives, was to be chosen annually by the colo- 
nists : 

The subordinate officers of the government were to 
be elected by the people. 

These were purely democratic provisions ; but there 
was one anti-republican featiu'e : the office of governor 
was hereditary in the family of Penn. By this he was a 
feudal lord, and the province was his principality. This 
could not well be otherwise ; for, if he had laid down 
that office, if he had abandoned the head of the govern- 
ment, his principality would have reverted to the king, 
and Pennsylvania would have become a royal province. 
Feudal law, as then understood in Europe, would have 
required such a reversion ; but it was more desirable 
that Penn should remain the aristocratic head of his 
principality, and he did remain. The feudal element 
was here again placed beside the democratic element, 
and the latter prevailed. 

This very democratic constitution of Pennsylvania 
conferred upon the colonists more real freedom than was 
to be found anywhere else in the world. Liberty of 
conscience and political privileges rendered Pennsyl- 
vania an asylum for the oppressed of all creeds and of all 
politics ; and emigrants gathered into the province, where 
the persecuted of every sect and the fugitives of every 
faction which disturbed the Old World, blessed the high- 
minded, calm, and benevolent Quaker who had provided 
them a refuge. Was there in this liberal organization 
no adaptation, no fitness, no reference, to our prospective 



128 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

republic ? Or did not this colony rather become a nur- 
sery of democracy? Suppose the elements of human 
nature and the state of the world, as it was two cen- 
turies and a half ago, had been shown to the most acute 
political speculator, and suppose the question had been 
asked him, " How, from these materials, would you orga- 
nize in North America a democratic government," what 
answer would he probably have made? Without a 
suggestion of the means which have actually been em- 
ployed, he might have replied, " The project is impos- 
sible," Suppose, however, he had penetrated a little 
into the future, and had seen the father of Pennsylvania 
landing his colony on the Delaw^are, and had seen the 
same good man stripping old feudalism of its priestly 
and kingly robes, and putting them upon young demo- 
cracy : suppose, I say, he had seen the benevolent 
Quaker doing all this, would he not have considered the 
problem of an American republic as already resolved ? 
would he not have pointed to such colonies as the 
agencies or materials out of which a great nation of 
freemen might be readily constructed ? 

From the description we have given of the demo- 
cratic features which characterized Penn's colony, it 
might be supposed that the colonists were perfectly 
satisfied with their government. In fact, however, the 
contrary occurred. Difficulties appeared, whose roots 
were nourished in the decaying rubbish of the imported 
feudalism. Penn was the proprietor, and the office of 
governor belonged to him and was hereditary in his fa- 
mily ; here was a feudal element ; a lordly power en- 
tirely at war with the democratic elements of the province. 
From these heterogeneous elements sprang a long, bitter, 
never-ceasing quarrel, which ran through nearly a whole 
century of Pennsylvania histoiy, and only terminated 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 129 

■with the American Revolution. The governors of the 
proprietor quarrelled with the legislature, and the legis- 
lature with the governors ; their interests were difTerent, 
their powers sprang from different sources, and they 
could not and did not harmonize ; and the last feeble 
feudal element was destined to fall before the progressive 
movement of popular government. 

The proprietor of Pennsylvania did, however, a great 
service to the cause of liberty. His biography is an 
abiding monument of a good man ; but his attempt to 
subject popular institutions to the guardianship of feudal 
sovereignty was a failure. The popular institutions were 
created, but the authority of tlie proprietor could not 
be maintained. His descendants, it is true, retained a 
nominal supervision of the colony ; but, Avhen the Re- 
volution was preparing to sweep away the relics of aris- 
tocratic institutions in the New World, the feudal su- 
premacy of the proprietor of Pennsylvania was a name 
which a legislative act blotted out. 

IV. The last attempt at feudal colonization in Ame- 
rica to which I will direct your attention, was made in 
Carolina. In A. D. 1665, Charles II. granted to eight 
of his favourites the country in North America between 
the thirty-sixth and twenty-ninth parallels of latitude, 
and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This 
vast territory, named Carolina, and reaching from Vir- 
ginia to Florida, was transferred in soil and sovereignty 
to these proprietors ; and authority was given to them to 
colonize it, and govern it as they might desire. It was 
their wish and' intention to erect this American pos- 
session into a feudal empire ; and they accordingly un- 
dertook to devise a form of government which would 
secure this end. 

The celebrated Earl of Shaftsbury, one of the eight 



130 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES, 

proprietors, called to his aid the English philosopher, 
John Locke ; and the courtier and metaphysician planned 
for Carolina a constitution of a very peculiar structure. 
Believing neither in innate ideas nor in innate principles, 
Locke rummaged the records of past generations, and 
devised a form of government which gave promise of 
securing to the proprietors absolute authority. Lnitating 
the feudal models of Europe, the lawgivers provided that 
the territory should be divided into counties, baronies, 
and manors, and be portioned out among nobles with 
names " to match." The charter from the king permitted 
the creation of a Carolina nobility, with the restriction, 
however, that the English titles should not be appro- 
priated to them. The Indians had caciques, tlie Ger- 
mans had landgraves, and the charter made mention of 
projirietors ; tliese w^re titles unknown to English he- 
raldry ; and grades of nobility under the names of pro- 
prietors, landgraves, and caciques, were accordingly de- 
vised for the principality of Carolina. The East Lidies 
also furnished the idea, not of transmigration, but of 
castes : and castes were provided for in the constitution. 
Professions and wealth were to be hereditary ; a tenant 
was to be always a tenant : he was to be a fixture, an 
oak-stump, a thing attached to the soil ; and his children 
after him, to all generations, were to be similar stumps. 
All legislative, judicial, and executive power was given 
to the nobility ; and the people, the tenants, " the dig- 
gers-up of trees' roots," were to have no substantial 
part in the administration of the government. 

Such was, in substance, the project by which the 
feudal forms and institutions were to be transferred to 
Carolina. But could it be expected that a colony in 
America would prosper under such a political system ? 
The projected organization contained absurdities which 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 131 

had long been fought against in Europe, and experience 
soon demonstrated its inapplicability to Carolina. 

The province into which this mimicry of feudalism 
was to be introduced was not, at the date of the charter, 
entirely without inhabitants. Adventurers from Virginia, 
from New England, and from the West Indies, had es- 
tablished a settlement on the sea-coast, in the region 
which is now North Carolina ; and, assuming the right 
of self-government, tliey had enacted laws for their co- 
lony. 

In A. D. 1670, the philosophical constitution of the 
proprietors in England was perfected, and shipped for 
North America. But tlie hardy emigrant among the pines 
and Indians sneered when told tliat he was become 
a subject in a feudal principality. " Better," said he, 
as he dangled his bearskin cap, and listened to the phi- 
losophic rigmarole, " better have log-choppers and root- 
diggers here than caciques and landgraves." The at- 
tempt, however, was made to subject the colony already 
formed to tlie government of the proprietors. 

At the same time a new colony was planted by the 
proprietors in the part now known as South Carolina. 
Emigrants were brought by them to the Ashley river ; 
Charleston was founded ; and the proprietors looked 
with hope upon their rising principality. They liberally 
expended money in the enterprise, and believed that the 
seed they were sowing in the wilderness would yield 
them a bountiful harvest. But when they attempted to 
establish their feudal constitution, they were opposed 
w4th a determined resistance. The northern colony and 
tlie southern colony were separated by a wilderness of 
three hundred miles; but they both resisted, with the 
energy of freemen, the government proposed by the pro- 
prietors. A long contest ensued, in both the settlements, 



132 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

between the inhabitants and their sovereigns. Good 
governors and bad governors were sent from the pro- 
prietors, and received the same reception from the colo- 
nists ; all being resisted. Sothel, in the northern set- 
tlement, oppressed the colonists, and cheated the pro- 
prietors who had sent him to govern in their name ; 
while Colleton, in the south, was perhaps a better man ; 
but, governing with the rank of landgrave, he became 
a tyrant, and was chased from the country. The pro- 
prietors abrogated their feudal constitution, re-estabhshed 
it, altered it, amended it, modified it, and metamorphosed 
it in eveiy possible manner, and yet it always received 
the same determined opposition in both colonies. The 
inhabitants were as blind to its worth as James II. had 
been to the liberal institutions of his country; they 
" could see no use for it." They did not wash for land- 
graves or caciques under any name or from any source ; 
they had gone to the wilderness to enjoy liberty, and 
they did enjoy it. 

Wearied with their unavailing efforts to force or coax 
the colonists into subjection, the proprietors in A. D. 
1729 abandoned their enterprise, and retransferred their 
immense territory to the crown. When their work was 
done, and they ceased to torment the inhabitants, the 
king assumed the government ; the northern colony was 
separated from the southern, and thus North and South 
Carolina came into being. 

This was the last effort at feudal colonization in North 
America. Its failure demonstrated that the worn-out and 
decaying institutions of Europe were inapplicable to the 
New World, and could not be perpetuated there. It 
also made known that the American colonies had a des- 
tiny different from subjection to a feudal lord. 

We have thus given a hasty review of the attempts 



FEUDAL COLONIZATION. 133 

at feudal colonization in America. These attempts, you 
perceive, were made in Maryland, in New Jersey, in 
New York, in Pennsylvania, in Delaware, and in the 
Carolinas. In these colonies the feudal or aristocratic 
element was brought into the presence of the demo- 
cratic element. The best of men and the worst of men 
here tried to put themselves at the head of affairs ; and 
in Maryland and Pennsylvania were exhibited, in bold 
relief, the grandest structures which feudal colonization 
could erect. In these provinces the feudal lords were 
mere schoolmasters, who taught the people how to be 
free. When the lesson was given and reduced to prac- 
tice, the mission of the teacher was at an end. 

In Carolina and New York the process was different ; 
but the result the same as in Pennsylvania and Maryland. 
In Carolina and New York feudal lords, instead of being 
teachers, tried to become masters ; they endeavoured to 
he over the people, not of them ; they spurned the hum- 
ble office of leading the colonists to liberty ; they drove 
them to it. If Penn and Lord Baltimore, having faith 
in humanity, made political privileges the basis of their 
colonial government, the people took what was offered, 
and asked for more. If, on the contrary, the Duke of 
York and the proprietors of Carolina could see no use 
for popular assemblies, the people could see no use for 
feudal lords ; and, while the feudal lords were in Eu- 
rope, the people were on the soil, and busy in the work 
of republicanism. Hence, one result was common to 
all the feudal colonies : namely, the people obtained the 
ascendency, and learned to govern ther.iselves. 

When the projectors of these colonies desired to es- 
tablish manors and baronial castles, and govern in North 
America as European nobles governed their principalities, 
the people resisted. A more ultimate result, the organi- 
M 



134 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

zation of our republic, required that the colonists should 
acquire skill and confidence in taking care of tliemselves. 
They needed practice ; they needed to be tried in a 
variety of circumstances j and the essays at feudal colo- 
nization put several colonies in a position to practise 
self-government. 

Were not these attempts at feudal colonization pros- 
pective contrivances ? Were they not agencies, means, 
arrangements which pointed forward in time to those 
grander results, which began to be announced to the 
world at Bunker Hill ? 

We pass on to another series of efforts to gain the 
ascendency in colonization : third, 

KINGS ATTEMPTED TO PUT THEMSELVES AT THE HEAD OF 
AMERICAN COLONIES. 

Foreign corporations and feudal nobles expended 
money in leading emigrants to the New World ; but the 
English sovereigns kept their treasure, and endeavoured 
to get colonies in another way. They rather imitated 
the eagle in his unroyal habit of depriving the fish-hawk 
of its fish: tliey looked patiently on till others had 
formed colonies, and then attempted to get possession 
of them. Corporations risked money, nobles risked re- 
putation, and private individuals risked life in planting 
colonies in America; but when they had built log- 
cabins, grubbed up roots, and sowed the seed, kings 
tried to reap the harvest ; and the English sovereign, 
from time to time, attempted to become tlie head of tlie 
several American colonies. Let us examine a little into 
the process of these attempts ; their motives, tlieir re- 
sults, and tlieir connexion with die organization of our 
republic. 

We do not wish to be understood as saying that the 



ROYAL COLONIZATION. 135 

English kings were always wrong in their interference 
with American colonization. We merely say that in 
that colonization kings were not the leaders, the money- 
payers, the men through whom the work was accom- 
plished ; but when adventurers came to this Western 
World, and laid the foundations, then kings tried to 
Duild. We have seen an exemplification of this asser- 
tion in the transactions connected with the origin of 
Virginia. In A. D. 1624, King James dissolved the 
corporation whose exertions originated that colony, and 
changed it into a royal province. By this change he 
became the king, or head of that colony, and exercised 
his authority through a governor of his own appoint- 
ment. His son. King Charles I., made an attempt to 
obtain a similar authority over New England. His trou- 
bles at home, however, recalled his attention from Ame- 
rica, and left the colonies to take care of themselves. 
James H., with his exalted notions of royalty, endea- 
voured to reduce all the colonies to his own arbitrary 
Tule, and to govern them as appendages to his crown. 
Charters granted to them by his predecessors were ab- 
rogated by him ; and he actually united into a single 
province all the region from the Delaware to the St. 
Lawrence, including the Jerseys, New York, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachu- 
setts. To this province the name New England was 
given, and Andros, a name famous in colonial history, 
was sent to govern it. Similar designs were meditated 
with respect to the southern colonies ; but the English 
Revolution of A. D. 1688 deprived James of his throne, 
and his kingdom of New England was redivided into 
its separate provinces. 

Similar attempts were made by William HI. to seize 
colonies planted by others. He deprived Penn of his 



136 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

government of Pennsylvania, and tried to convert it 
into a royal province ; he took possession of Maryland 
in disregard of the rights of the proprietor, and go- 
verned it by a deputy of his own appointment. Penn- 
sylvania was in a few years restored to its owner, the 
Quakers being found a peaceable, but most impracticable 
people ; but Maryland remained during a whole gene- 
ration under royal tutelage. Massachusetts, on the con- 
trary, received from WilHain in A. D. 1G91 a charter 
which gave to the colonists of that province a large 
share in the management of their government ; it re- 
mained, however, so far in subjection to the crown as 
to receive a royal governor. The same sovereign, by 
contract with tlie proprietors, obtained the government 
of New Jersey in A. D. 1702. 

In the reign of subsequent kings the Carolinas and 
Georgia also became royal provinces. Thus, seven of 
the thirteen colonies came into the possession of the 
English sovereign ; and kings, who had borne neither 
the labour nor the expense of planting colonies, at- 
tempted to reap upon the ground sown by others. 

What were the reasons or inducements which sent 
the English kings so repeatedly to seize upon the colo- 
nies, and dispossess the j^eople, the corporations, and 
the proprietors of their rights of goverinnent ? To those 
who believe kings to be necessarily tyrants, this question 
will appe;u- superlluous ; but those who are indiiu-d to 
trace political conduct up to its motives in the mind of 
the actors, will find that tlie Englisii kings, in their con- 
nexion with the Americim colonies, acted mainly from 
two prominent ideas. 

I. The first of these ideas was, that the soil and 
sovereignty of America belonged inalienably to the king, 
and was not and could not be by any grant or chailer 



ROYAL COLONIZATION. 137 

transferred from him. Inalienable sovereignty was an 
elemental idea of the feudal system ; and, though the 
English kings gave to corporations and proprietors, and 
others, charters purporting to transfer the sovereignty, or 
right of government, yet tliere remained to the king that 
ultimate sovereignty, that feudal supremacy, that para- 
mount authority, which was not and could not be trans- 
ferred. Acting upon this tlieory. King James derided 
the pretensions of parliament when that body interfered 
to control the colony of Virginia. Hi; claimed that North 
America belonged to the crown — tliat it was his own, 
and that parliament had no right to intermeddle with his 
American possessions. His successors believed the same 
creed. The king thus being, as he supposed, the feudal 
lord of North America, reserved to himself in his grants 
the uUiinate sovereignty, tlie feudal supremacy over the 
colonies. 

II. Closely connected with this idea was another, 
which was also drawn from the depths of the feudal sys- 
tem : namely, that no English subject could divest him- 
self of his allegiance, or cease to be an English subject. 
Allegiance was a duty which every Englishman owed to 
his sovereign, and to which he was bound by an oath, 
either taken or supposed to be taken. The obligation 
of this oath never ceased. An Englishman might go 
to the East Indies, or to Africa, or to the South Sea 
Islands, or to China, but wherever he went he was still 
an English subject, and owed allegiance to his sovereign. 
Once a subject, he was alw^ays a subject. His allegi- 
ance, like the marriage relation, ceased only with life. 
Hence, when Englishmen came to America they still 
owed allegiance to their liege lord, his majesty in Eng- 
land. They continued to be his men. The colonies 



138 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

they established were merely new homes, where they 
lived the same subjects that tliey had been in England. 
We have then these two elemental ideas : first, that 
the sovereignty of America belonged inalienably to the 
king ; second, that emigrants to America, like all other 
English subjects everywhere, owed him perpetual alle- 
giance. These two ideas had a very extensive influ- 
ence in originating and directing the conduct of the 
English sovereigns towards the American colonies. Did 
the colonists attempt to make their own laws and govern 
themselves, the English monarch interposed to preserve 
his sovereignty. Did the colonists refuse to contribute 
to the royal revenue, the king was alarmed lest tliey 
should renounce their allegiance. Did they attempt to 
traffic directly with foreign nations ; tliat was contrary to 
the laws of England, and destructive of the king's su- 
premacy over them. Did they grow turbulent, and chase 
away royal governors and custom-house officers ; that 
was destructive of the monarch's sovereignty, and a 
denial of allegiance. Did three or four of the colonies 
propose to unite in order to repel the attacks of the In- 
dians or the French, their union boded ill to the sove- 
reignty of the king, and was prohibited. Individuals, 
who desired to emigrate to America, were sometimes 
forbidden to depart from England lest they should, in 
their new home, renounce their allegiance to the king. 
Tradition reports that such an injunction restrained 
Cromwell and some of his fellow-patriots, when they 
were on ship-board and ready to sail for New England; 
and it was objected to the Puritans, that they wished to 
go to America in order to free themselves from subjec- 
tion to the crown. They were taunted with the accusa- 
tion that they wished to get away from die presence of 
his majesty, that they might cease to render him obe- 



ROYAL COLONIZATION. 139 

dience. A license to emigrate, which was inserted in 
many of the charters, pointed to the allegiance which 
tlie emigrants owed to their king in England, and which 
they would continue to owe in their home in America. 

These two ideas caused the English kings to look 
upon the colonies as extensions of the kingdom, and 
upon the colonists as subjects. The grants to corpora- 
tions and others, of regions in America, were regarded 
as trusts for increasing the power and promoting the 
honour of the crown. Hence, when the king was ad- 
vised that a colony failed in this trust, when he saw it 
perform acts endangering his colonial sovereignty, or 
when he apprehended that its inhabitants were forgetting 
their allegiance, it was warned of its error. If it did 
not speedily satisfy the crown, the royal power was put 
forth to reduce it to immediate dependence. 

I have stated this connexion of the crown with the 
colonies in general terms, because they were all at one 
time or another reduced to royal provinces mainly be- 
cause they had not been sufficiently careful in recog- 
nising the king's sovereignty, or their own allegiance. 
It was to preserve this sovereignty and allegiance that 
they were all directed to be governed by the laws of 
England, so far as applicable to their condition. 

These two ideas, dug from the rubbish of feudalism, 
sent the English sovereigns to control American coloni- 
zation ; but those princes did not reflect that these two 
old ideas might not be suited or applicable to the con- 
dition of things in the New World. They saw that 
sovereignty and perpetual allegiance did well enough in 
Europe ; and it did not occur to them that they would 
not be adapted to emigrants in America. 

Ideas of fitness or appropriateness often arise very 
slowly. When the missionaries went to the Sandwich 



140 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Islands, they burnt shells, made lime, and whitewashed 
their buildings. The islanders, seeing the effect, also 
burnt shells, made lime, and proceeded to whitewash. 
First they whitewashed their houses, then their furniture, 
then their pigs, then their poultry; and finally, they 
whitewashed their children. They saw that whitewash- 
ing was an elegant improvement to buildings; but it 
never occurred to them that it would be inappropriate to 
pigs, poultry, and children. The English kings com- 
mitted a similar error in their conduct towards the Ame- 
rican colonies. They saw that sovereignty and perpetual 
allegiance were fine ideas fi)r Europe ; but they did not 
reflect that these ideas were of European growth ; they 
did not reflect that new circumstances must necessarily 
produce new systems of government. They had no- 
thing to ofler to America except feudal sovereignty and 
perpetual allegiance ; but the inappropriateness of this 
offering to the condition of the emigrants rendered the 
royal whitewashing a trouble and a failure. 

We may say the attempt of the kings to carry these 
two ideas into practice in America was a failure ; for the 
colonists disregarded them both — always practically — 
often systematically. Many of them had come to the 
wilderness to escape from the oppression laid upon them 
in Europe. The accusations of the royalists were tnie ; 
for the colonists did wish to free themselves from the 
burdens of obedience ; their opinions, their wishes, 
their whole temper of mind, were hostile to the royal 
claims of sovereignty and perpetual allegiance. Hence, 
during the whole colonial history there was a constant 
struggle between the democratic element and the regal 
element. The royal power was exerted to propagate, 
to preserve, to enforce, sovereignty and allegiance ; and 
the democratic power was exerted to shake off this 



ROYAL COLONIZATION. 141 

yoke, to get away from this obedience, and to establish 
a system of government, suited to the wants and wishes 
and circumstances of the colonists. 

Surely it cannot be matter of surprise that two su(;h 
antipo al systems should, like the principles of good and 
evil, be in unceasing conflict. The result of the conflict 
was, that the attempt of the kings to maintain themselves 
at the head of American colonization was unsuccessful ; 
and, though they appointed the governors of the royal 
provinces down to the Revolution, yet their authority 
over the internal government of the colonies might well 
be symbolized by a shadow, or at least by a meager, 
thin, debilitated, consumptive figure. When I say that 
kings failed to maintain themselves at the head of the 
American colonies, I do not refer to the Revolution as 
the time when that failure occurred ; I mean that the 
main ideas of sovereignty and allegiance were resisted 
by the colonists, and that they were resisted with such 
effect, that in their internal affairs the emigrants — the 
people — were the supreme power. 

But we must hasten on to the last series of attempts 
that were made in American colonization, which we will 
resume in the next lecture. 



LECTURE V. 

rorULAR COLONIZATION. 

Popular Colonization: I. Attempts by the people directly to plant co- 
lonics — Settlement of New England — First constitution formed on 
the Mayflower — Pure dcniocracy — Rdiffioua liberty — lv()i:!;er Wil- 
liams promulgates entire liberty of conscience ; II. Attemjits by tlio 
people to gain the control of colonies planted by corporalions and 
feudal nobles — Success in the several colonics — Causes of llic po- 
pularization of all the colonies : I. Many of the colonists came to 
escape from oppression in Europe — Connexion of tlie Reformation 
with libcrly in America — Progress of liberal opinion; II. The 
emigrants were in America removed from the inlhicncc of old and 
illiberal institutions — System of laws, however, carried with them 
lo America — Adaptation of the common law to the colonies — Abo- 
lition of the law of primogeniture — All the colonial movements 
tended towards popular government — Conclusion of the review of 
American colonization. 

We have reviewed tlie attempts made by foreign 
corporations, feudal })rinces, and kings, to plant and go- 
vern colonies in America, and we now come to consider 
the })opular attempts at colonization. According to the 
order already presented, we have tlie general statement : 
fourth, 

THE PEOPLE, INDEPENDENTLY OF FOREIGN CORPORATIONS, 
FEUDAL NOBLES, AND KINGS, TRIED TO FORM CULt)NIi;S IN 
AMERICA. 

Private enterprise was the animating spirit which in- 
fused life and energy into American colonization. Pri- 
vate adventurers, to make gain or to escape ojipression, 
came to this continent, and were the true founders of 
our nation. Some of them came under the guardian- 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 143 

ship of forei<;ii corponilions ; some uiulcr the dirccliou 
of feudal nobles ; but many, })utting their trust in a hc- 
nign Providence, came hither to seek that repose and 
liberty of conscience -which were denied them in Eu- 
rope. Let us see -what influence these popidar attemjjts 
at colonization had upon the organization of our republic. 
In the assertion that the peo])le tried to form colonics, 
there are involved two subordinate ideas which, though 
closely connected, have certain shades of dillc'rence 
worthy of our notice. The first idea is, that the people, 
private individuals, the mass men, attempled, of tlu-ir 
own mere motion, to originate colonies in America : the 
other subordinate idea is, that in the colonies originated 
by corporations and feudal nobles, the p(>ople endea- 
voured to gain the ascendency. Let us pursue the course 
j)ointed out by this division, and incpiire first a little into 
the purely popular attempts at colonization in Ameri(ui. 
L New England was the region where the earliest of 
these attempts was made, and where their results were 
most fully developed. The story of the Puritans will at 
once suggest itself when mention is made of the popular 
colonization of oin- country. Children of the Reforma- 
tion, they had fled from England to avoid the severe 
laws of Queen Elizabeth. That Protestant princess, in 
her zeal for uniformity of doctrine and worship, caused 
laws to be enacted directing all her dutiful subjectts to 
conform to the ceremonies and creed of the Church of 
England. A sect appeared who refused compliaiu^e. 
Flying for conscience' sake, they sought refuge; in Hol- 
land, that foggy receptacle for the persecuted and dis- 
aflt'c.ted of all luitions. Sighing at the thought of their 
children being changed into Dutch merchants, and 
losing their language and faith, they turned their eyes to 
the wilderness of America. They yearned for a home 



144 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

where they could repose in peace, and where liberty of 
conscience could be enjoyed. They sailed for America ; 
and the Mayflower, bearing these patriarchal heroes of 
our nation, arrived off the coast of Massachusetts, in 
December, A. D. 1620. 

What were their views respecting their future career? 
Their plans and faith are revealed in the form of govern- 
ment which they adopted on ship-board, and under 
which they proposed to act in their new home. This 
primitive document of American democracy ran as fol- 
lows: 

" In the name of God, Amen: we, whose names are 
underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, 
King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God 
and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of 
our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony 
in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, 
solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of 
one another, covenant and combine ourselves together 
into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and pre- 
servation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and, 
by virtue hereof, do enact, constitute, and frame such 
just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and 
officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet 
and convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto 
which we promise all due submission and obedience." 

We have transcribed this compact entire, because it 
gives a luminous view of the origin of popular govern- 
ment in America. " We, the undersigned, combine our- 
selves together into a civil body politic:" this is the 
substance of the constitution adopted by the pilgrim 
fathers. Abstractionists have laboured to find in a social 
compact the origin of human government. They might 
have verified their speculations by quoting the simple 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 



145 



and sublime announcement which was made from the 
May'flower, when forty-one persons " combined them- 
selves together into a civil body politic," Here was 
democratic government in its cradle. Nothing was said 
about the divine right of kings, nothing was said about 
the divine origin of human government, nothing was 
said about perpetual allegiance ; but a great event was 
announced in tlie declaration " we combine ourselves 
together into a civil body politic." Who will even now 
describe the results of this democratic organization ? 

When yEneas, the father of the Roman Empire, sailed 
for the shores of Italy, all Heaven was thrown into an 
uproar in contemplation of the results, and Jupiter and 
the grand celestials made angry speeches to each other 
on the subject, as long as the messages of modern go- 
vernors. The gods and goddesses paired off, like Whigs 
and Tories, into two political parties, one party being 
for iEneas, and one against him. Virgil tells the whole 
story, describing the fights and copying the speeches. 

Now grant that these fables were realities, and we 
have, in the voyage of the Roman progenitor, a type of 
that actual voyage which brought the Puritans to New 
England, and laid the foundations of our nation. If the 
fabled ship was freighted with the destinies of Rome, in 
the Mayflower were borne the seeds of that republican 
tree under which millions of freemen now repose. 

What were the motives which brought the pilgrims 
here ? What were the views they entertained of their 
prospective position in America ? The primitive docu- 
ment of American democracy, which we have just quoted, 
tells us that they desired to plant a colony for the glory 
of God, for the advancement of the Christian faith, and 
honour of their king and country. This recital of their 
motives points to the most exalted ends of human ac- 

N 



146 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tion ; and, with their eyes steadily fixed upon these grand 
resuhs, they commenced the Plymouth colony. Being 
at first a pure democracy, they endured sore trials of 
their religious and political faith. Subsequently they 
organized a representative republic, and became the 
model of many other New England settlements.* 

The settlement of Massachusetts commenced under 
a foreign corporation. The Plymouth Company of Eng- 
land, in the days of its decline, granted a charter for 
Massachusetts to a subordinate corporation in England, 
at the head of which was Sir Henry Rosewell. In a few 
years this charter was transferred from England to Mas- 
sachusetts, or, in other words, the corporation itself emi- 
grated, and became part of the colony it was to establish. 

* In the "History of the Revolt of the American Colonies, by 
George Chalmers," recently published in Boston, the author, a Scotch 
loyalist, thus characterizes the Puritan emigrants : 

"A few fanatics, wiio, tired of the European world, because it de- 
nied to them that toleration which they showed little inclination to 
allow to others, sailed for Virginia, but were driven by storm on the 
coast of New England. Here they determined to end a disastrous 
voyage, since the approach of winter as well as their distresses forbade 
farther adventure. But sagacity soon discovered that he who appears 
to be animated by the fervours of religion, may at the same time be 
actuated by the most ardent ambition." — Chal. B. I. c. II. 

The loyalist author regards these "fanatics" as the disseminators 
of that rebellious spirit which he so much deplores. 

In a subsequent chapter, speaking of the clergy of Massachusetts 
and New Plymouth, he gives us the following information: 

" The savage vulgarity of the clergy gave them considerable influ- 
ence over the minds of the multitude, whose manners they formed, 
whose inclinations they directed to that love of equality, that impa- 
tience of restraint, which strangers in after times attributed to a level- 
ling principle. And to this source may be traced up the genuine 
causes of the various events of their annals." — Chal. B. II., c. II. 

There is great truth in some of these observations. But the Pu- 
ritan clergy, "fanatics" acting with "savage vulgarity!" That will 
do. Good-bye, Mr. Chalmers. 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 147 

Endicott, a hero renowned in New England's history, 
led the mass. A civil government was organized, of 
which the charter was the nucleus, and in which the 
emigrants, the multitude, were the rulers ; and Mas- 
sachusetts became the centre of New England coloniza- 
tion ; and, reaching out its arms northward and south- 
ward, it embraced Maine, and finally absorbed the Ply- 
mouth colony. The little plantations that were esta- 
blished by private enterprise along the coast of New 
England, became, in time, incorporated into this pro- 
vince. Here the entire civil government, in its whole 
internal administration, was in the hands of the colo- 
nists ; here men learned to govern themselves ; here the 
" diggers-up of trees' roots" became law-makers, judges, 
and governors. 

Emigrants from Massachusetts, under the direction 
of the worthy Thomas Hooker, planted a colony on the 
Connecticut, and laid the foundation of that province 
on the broad basis of democracy. These emigrants, like 
the pilgrims of the Mayflower, erected themselves into 
a body politic, and exercised, of their own mere mo- 
tion, all the functions of government witliout any recog- 
nition of royal sovereignty or perpetual allegiance to the 
crown. A colony, similar in origin and independence, 
was established at New Haven : and these little republics 
were, in the next generation, united into the province 
of Connecticut by charter from Charles H. 

But while the Puritans sought to establish democratic 
colonies, and enjoy political and religious liberty, they 
forgot that all intellects have an equal right to act for 
themselves. They became so rigidly exclusive, that con- 
formity to their own church became the condition of 
citizenship. Roger Williams, fixing his steady gaze 
upon a bright and glorious star, the star of intellectual 



118 



(MlKilN OK TlIK UNiTKD STATICS. 



lilx'iiy, I'ci'iisrd lo coiniily willi llic i'('(|ui,sili<)ns made in 
hcliiiir el llif «'Mtal>li,slic(l clmiili nl' Mnssiu'liusctls ; Ilic 
li'^iNliilui't' huiiislicd liiiu Iriiiii llu- |ii'iivin('t> ; aiul lie went 
Coi'tl) li'otn Ills kiiulrcd {o Ixt'diiH-, likr Aluiiluiiii ol old, 
ii Idi'ssiii,"; to Ilic world. Willi llir inaltocli, (he (tiir, and 
the l»\Mt', die licroic cmIc sal down in die wildcincss, 
and laid (lie loiiiidaltoiis ot' liliodc Island. A consliln- 
(mn (il die nuisl lilnial cliaraclcr was iVamrd lor die j.';o- 
Nt'ininciil ol Ins i'(>li<n> . 'I'lir will ol die nia|orilv was 
to g'(i\cin (lie .>.lal(' in civil nialtcis ; lull in i'ci',ar(l (o S|ii- 
riliial allaii's, no m>vt'ni(ir was rccof^'iiisrd fxcrjil tin' 
Katlitr ol Spiiils. All cicrds and all seels wnv ad- 
inillfd lo IvIhmIc IsI and ; Jew and l'a<^';an, Malioinctan 
and ('Inistian, all were llit'i'<> provided a slicllcr. Koj.;t*r 
Williams liad lilt' saj^acity lo slrikf n|>on altsolulc IVcc- 
(loin ol (•(Misncni't', npon universal lolcialion, as llu- 
hasis ol Ins eolon> ; lie lirsl had llie saj^aeity lo de\(>- 
l(i|ie lliis |>rnui|>le, a |iriiiei|'le wliuli lias lieeiune nii- 
he'ddi'd iiild die solid slmeliire ol i>iii' nation. ('al\ert 
lieloi'e linn, ami l*enn alU r liim, rounded slates with 
lolenilion ot' all i '/ii-istiitii seels; Williams went a step 
laillier, and o|iened an asyhun lor all ei'eeds, ut all tui- 
tions. Our whole llnion has adopted the principle lirst 
pioinulf^ated li> him, thai j^tn ci iiiim'iiI should not adopt 
reli}.;'iouS creeds. Thoiiidil should he nnlimilcd e\cepf 
hy tlu" laws of the Creator, llu- (Uily laws adapted to its 
nature. 

'I'liis universal liherty ol <'onscience was, at a siihst»- 
qutMit day, reeo^iiist'd in the charter of Uliode Island 
)j;ranl»'il hv Charles II. In thai primitive ilocnnu'nt ol' 
relif;ious liherty, the t'ollowin!',' provisions are inserted: 

" No pers(»n within the said coIoim shall he anywise 
molested, punished, disi|iiictcd, or called m iinestion lor 
anv dillciences m (<piiiton in nuitters o[ reli!.;ion ; hut 



rorin.AU coloni/aiion. J 1!) 

all :iii(l every person uiul persons nmy freely and fully 
have and enjoy liis and Uicn- own indj^nicnl and coii- 
scrienee in mailers of relif^ions eoncernnirnl, dicy lie- 
havint;' themselves peaceahly ami ([nielly, ami nol nsnif^ 
this liberty to licentiousness and j)roraiieness, nor to the 
civil injury and outward dislnrhanee ol dIIk is." 

This noMe cliaiicr was j^ianlcd liy die loyal pcrse- 
eiilor of die Scollish coNenanlers! 'i'lie siihstance ol' il 
is the religious cliaiicr ol our whole nalioii. Tlic part 
o(" it which I have recited cannot he loo carcCully stu- 
died ; it jirovides for the free exercise ol rclinion, wilh 
no other restriction than that this liltciiy is not lo he 
jiiade a cloak for licentiousness, or injury lo olliers. 
Such was \\n'. character of the popular colonization of 
New lOnglaml. 

A similar spontaneous movenicnl of (lie people planlcd 
llie colony of North ('aiolina. Many advcniurcis lidiii 
New lOnglamI sou|^lit a home in thai soiilhern wilder- 
ness, ami aided Noiih ('arolina in succcssrully reject iii'ij 
the philoso|)lncal (•onstilulion of Ijocke. 

New lOngland, however, hecame Ihc scc(U|i|(il of 
liheral opinions, and Massachusells was the nuisery of 
dcmocraoy. Aflcr lightintij alonj^' for half a century, llie 
charier of thai province was revoked liy .lames II., lie- 
cause "he could sec no use for il." Il was restored, as 
we have already mentioned, hy William III., willi Ilic 
alteration, that a governor was lo he appointed hy tin; 
crown. The contest hetween the royal governors ami 
the people of that province, which were carried on 
through lhree-c|iiarters of a century, is a himinoiis c(nii- 
inentary upon the democracy of New Kngland. The 
governor insisted that Ihc legislaliire of the province, 
should pass an act giving him a fixed salary. The legis- 
lature could "see no use" for such an act, and refused. 



N* 



150 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

An almost ludicrous contest of three-quarters of a cen- 
tury ensued. If we had no more of the colonial history 
than what relates to this matter of the salary of the 
royal governor of Massachusetts, we could form a pretty 
correct idea of the temper of the popular colonies, and 
of the relation which, in their opinion, they sustained to 
England. But we are not restricted to this half-comical, 
yet highly important contest about the pay of the king's 
governor. The whole colonial history of New England 
is the history of a people who were determined to have 
their internal government in their own hands ; and who, 
by the exercise of great wisdom, firmness, and sagacity, 
baffled the English sovereigns and lived under their own 
laws. Such men were worthy to be the leaders in those 
measures which eventuated in the establishment of our 
national independence and national union. 

II. The second subordinate idea involved in the con- 
sideration of the popular colonization of our country is, 
that in the colonies originated by corporations and feudal 
nobles, the people tried to gain the ascendency. In these 
attempts there was a singular uniformity in the colonies. 
I mean a uniformity in regard to the results upon popular 
government. The popular movement in the colonies was 
a progressive movement, and its progression was con- 
tinually towards republicanism. In Virginia, the people, 
while yet under the corporation that planted the colony, 
established a house of representatives which became a 
model for the other American plantations. In the New 
Netherlands, while under the Dutch East India Company, 
a similar attempt was made by the colonists to gain a 
share in the government. At a later day, and under a 
change of masters, they accomplished their purpose. 

In the colonies which were organized on the plan of 
feudal principalities, a similar popularization occurred. 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 151 

In the Carollnas, in Mar}'land,in Delaware, in Pennsyl- 
vania, and in the Jerseys, the people — the colonists, 
practically governed themselves during the period in 
which the proprietors claimed the ascendency. The 
democratic or liberal element prevailed through these 
colonies, and the people would rule; the feudal ele- 
ment would not amalgamate with the democratic ele- 
ment. The introduction of great proprietors seemed 
like bringing to the wilderness of America the lords and 
lordlings of overruled Europe. When transplanted to 
America, nobility became a sickly exotic ; it would not 
acclimate. While proprietors were talking of their rents, 
the people were intent only upon liberty. To keep 
the inhabitants in a good humour, the proprietors granted 
them political privileges; and Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land enjoyed a large share of liberty through the be- 
nevolence of their founders, while the Carolinas and the 
Jerseys obtained similar immunities through the ope- 
ration of less exalted motives — the hope of gain. The 
people, however, by one means and another gained a 
school — a gymnasium, where they could exercise and 
train and discipline themselves in self-government. 

Similar attempts, attended with similar success, were 
made in those provinces where the crown, succeeding to 
the labours of others, endeavoured to control the internal 
government of the colonies. It is not pretended that 
the royal colonies were at all times in a struggle with 
the crown, or that there were no examples of subordina- 
tion, and even of temporary subjection to the royal au- 
thority. Acts might be cited which indicate a very 
loyal submission, as were many acts of the colonists, 
connected with the restoration of Charles II. For 
illustration, we may mention that the legislature of Vir- 
guiia, which on the reception of that news was electtJd 



152 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

for two years, sat sixteen, and became a mere tool in 
the hands of the royal governor, for disfranchising the 
colonists and reducing them to unconditional bondage. 
The popular spirit, however, revived after sixteen years 
of usurpation; Bacon's rebellion, in A. D. 1676, dis- 
persed the royalist legislature ; and the flames of James- 
town, which was sacrificed on the altar of liberty, sym- 
bolized well the burning spirit of freedom, which, after 
shooting out at different points, and gathering strength 
through a whole century, finally blazed forth in the fires 
of the Revolution. At a later day. New York exhibited 
a similar loyal spirit on the accession of William III. 
The popular assembly of the colony, on that occasion, 
signified its loyal zeal by executing the patriotic, but 
unfortunate Leisler, whose projects of popular liberty 
were subsequently adopted from Massachusetts to 
Georgia. But exclusive of a few such examples of 
loyal submission, the movement of the royal provinces 
harmonized with the liberal movements of the other 
colonies. There was a unison, a sympathy, a har- 
mony of feeling, connecting the different provinces all 
along the Atlantic border ; and the same struggle, the 
same spirit contending for the same objects, may be 
seen at different epochs along the whole line of colo- 
nial history. 

I have just noticed the general harmony between the 
movements of the royal provinces and of the other co- 
lonies; and you perceive that in them all the move- 
ment was towards a popularization of the colonial go- 
vernments. There was a constant effort of the people. — 
of the mass — of "the diggers-up of trees' roots" — to 
escape from the control of kings, corporations, and feudal 
nobles, and to establish colonial governments, in which 
tltey could manage their own aflfairs in their own way. 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 153 

This was the result — the end — the point towards which 
the diversified events of the colonial history constantly 
tended. 

A few of the causes or circumstances which promoted 
this popularization of the colonial governments, merit a 
passing notice in this connexion, inasmuch as even a 
cursory view of them will exhibit the fountain-heads 
from which have flowed the liberal streams that now 
water our land. 

I. The first of these circumstances is to be found in 
the fact that many, very many, of the colonists came to 
America to escape from the religious and political per- 
secutions to which they were exposed at home. The 
progress of affairs in America was affected by the move- 
ments in Europe. The great ocean of human beings 
ebbs and flows, and the remote wilderness feels the 
heavings of the distant city. The same Providence who 
made of one blood all the families of men, and sent them 
to dwell over the face of all the earth, prepares from 
afar the means by which new and grand results are to be 
developed in the career of the human race. The Re- 
formation in Europe and its consequences to the nations 
there, were the means, the agencies, the moving influ- 
ences which Providence employed to fill America with 
the men who were needed in the origination and es- 
tablishment of our republic. The Reformation had a 
political as well as an ecclesiastical operation. It de- 
veloped one idea, which ran equally through religion, 
through politics, and through philosophy. That idea 
was, that Mind is of right free. This one idea revolu- 
tionized the church, revolutionized philosophy, and went 
far towards revolutionizing government. It laid the axe 
at the root of the ecclesiastical and political slave-tree. 



154 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

It (lid more : it raised up giants who wielded that axe 
with mighty force and ponderous strokes. 

Rightly to appreciate the operation of this idea, and 
the work which the Reformation accomplished, we must 
remember that the political and ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion of Europe was one system and one organization. 
The church was not first organized and then the state, 
nor was the state first organized and then the church ; 
but church and state grew up together, and formed one 
system — not two. Hence, in the straining and disrup- 
tion of the cords of the church in the days of the Re- 
formation, there was also great violence done to the cords 
of the state. The Reformation consequently introduced 
a Protestantism in the state as well as in the church ; and 
the populace of Europe awoke to the idea of freedom — 
freedom of the intellect, freedom in matters of religion, 
and freedom in political government. The Reformation 
developed this idea, expanded it, and held it up before 
the admiring eyes of thousands. What was the conse- 
quence ? The immediate consequence was, that this 
idea of freedom, in its several ramifications in church, 
state, and philosophy, came in collision with an anta- 
gonistic idea : namely, the doctrine of absolute power, 
the doctrine of a divinely granted authority in church, in 
state, and in philosophy. A contest, long, fierce, furious, 
and bloody, ensued between these two ideas ; absolutism, 
in its several ramifications, being arrayed on one side, 
and liberty on the other. It was in the heavings of this 
struggle that the oppressed children of freedom sought 
and found an asylum in America. They came hither, 
as the dove returned to the ark, because it could find 
elsewhere no rest for the sole of its foot. 

Here is the connexion of the Refi)rmation with the 
popularized and liberty-loving governments of America. 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 155 

The connexion lies in the idea of liberty which was struck 
out and developed by the Reformers, and which brought 
men here in hopes of realizing that freedom of con- 
science, of government, and of thought, which was de- 
nied them hi Europe. 

And what kind of men came here from these motives ? 
What were their excellencies ? their peculiar character- 
istics? Without hesitation I reply, "they were mm." 
They were the choice spirits of Europe. They were 
individuals who exercised thought, who reasoned^ who 
looked away from the glitter of courts, from the mitres 
of the church, and from the flatteries of j)rinces. They 
felt in their inmost souls the living reality of liberty : 
liberty of conscience, of government, and of thought. 
And they had the moral courage to free themselves from 
bondage, to think for themselves, and to act for them- 
selves. The first class of these moral heroes who 
sought shelter within the limits of the present United 
States, were the Huguenots, who planted themselves un- 
der the guardianship of Coligny in Carolina, and subse- 
quently in Florida. Annihilated by the jealousy and 
cruelty of the Spaniards, they bequeathed their spirit and 
their daring to their moral kindred in Europe, and the 
Puritans copied their example. Roger Williams, and 
Penn, and Lord Baltimore, gazed upon the same glori- 
ous image of liberty. They followed the persecuted and 
flying beauty to the wilderness, and among the chestniils 
and oaks and rocks and rivers of North America, built 
bowers for her abode. 

It is pleasing to watch the progress and operation of 
a single grand idea. The mind is of right free, said the 
Quaker, because God in the soul is the standard of truth. 
The dignity of the Divine presence requires his taber- 
nacle, the human soul, to be free. 



156 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Arriving at the same result through a less sublime 
philosophy, the oppressed of every name in Europe 
joined the disciples of Barclay and Penn, and preferred 
liberty in tlie wilderness to slavery in the land of their 
fathers. They fled from Europe to escape from bondage 
in conscience, in government, and in thought ; and should 
they in America, by yielding to the control of kings, cor- 
porations and nobles, abandon that liberty whose glo- 
rious image had allured tliem hither ? Is it matter of 
surprise that such men in their new homes " could see 
no use for" feudal proprietors and royal governors ? 
With such men, acting from such motives, the popular 
organization of the new governments in America was 
inevitable, 

II. Another circumstance which operated very exten- 
sively in giving to the colonial governments a popular 
cast, was, that the emigrants came away from institutions 
and influences which were adverse to free government. 
I do not here refer to the distance — the three thousand 
miles of ocean which separated the colonists from Europe 
■ — tliough that was favourable to self-government. I wish 
rather to present the idea of coming away, of rising up 
and leaving, of coming out from among aristocratic and 
monarchic institutions. By such a separation, the emi- 
grants, when they arrived here, had the benefit of the 
experience of Europe in matters of government ; and 
they had this benefit without being incumbered with 
the institutions and influences, which in the countries 
they left, were hostile to popular government. They were 
at liberty to select, or rather they in fact did select what 
elements of European society and government they wished 
to introduce into America. We have seen what recep- 
tion — what place, tliey gave to royalty and to feudal laws. 
They in fact rejected them in the internal organization 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 157 

of the colonial governments. The ecclesiastical system, 
the blended, two-fold, dualistic, Janus-like organization 
of church and state, which in Europe was the core of 
persecution and oppression, found but little favour in 
America. It had a few humble imitations in Massachu- 
setts, in Virginia, and at a few other points ; where it pro- 
duced its legitimate fruits, /iffno*ing" Quakers in the north, 
and disfranchising Roman Catholics in the south. But 
the system did not find favour. The universal toleration 
preached and practised by Roger Williams, was the 
polar star of the colonies in church matters, and they 
one after another began to sail by its guidance. 

But there was one element of English society, which 
was selected and adopted by the colonists ; and that was 
tlie common law of England. This became the basis 
of colonial jurisprudence, for the very substantial reason 
tliat the early colonists, who came principally irom Eng- 
land, were familiar with it. Conformity to it was en- 
joined by the charters for American colonization, but 
the fact that the colonists were acquainted with it was 
the main ground of its adoption. The laws of a people 
mark their character ; and, as the common law of Eng- 
land was one of tlie principal elements which, after 
being elaborated in the Old World, was transferred to 
the New, and operated extensively in the organization 
of our republic, the reasons and extent of its adoption 
merit, in this connexion, a little more detail. 

When a people have grown up under a system of 
laws which regulate their contracts, protect their pro- 
perty, and redress their injuries, they will, if taken from 
their country and thrown elsewhere into a society, na- 
turally have recourse to those laws for their rule of action 
in their new home. This, in fact, occurred in the Ame- 
rican colonies. The first emigrants adopted the com- 
o 



158 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

mon law of England in its essential elements, because 
they were familiar with it ; its provisions, in many re- 
spects, suited them ; they knew it, and therefore made 
it their own. It is often asserted that the common law 
was the birth-right of the colonies, and tliat they were 
entitled to it. It was indeed their birth-right, as the Eng- 
lish language was their birth-right ; and it became the basis 
of their jurisprudence, for the same reason that the Eng- 
lish language continued their language — because they 
were acquainted with it. They retained their mother 
tongue because they knew how to scold, make love, and 
drive bargains in it ; and they retained their mother laws 
because they suited the purposes of the emigrants, and 
were known to them. When it is said that the common 
law was their birthright, and that they were entitled to 
it, the declaration relates to their connexion with the 
English sovereigns, and intimates that laws long esta- 
blished had exempted all English subjects from the op- 
pression and tyranny of the crown. 

But many of the colonies adopted the common law 
with very important modifications. The rules of primo- 
geniture, which give the whole estate of a deceased pa- 
rent to his eldest son, were introduced into some of the 
colonies ; as in the Carolinas, Virginia, New York, and 
Rhode Island ; but in other colonies they were materially 
changed. The reason of this law ceased in America. 
European society was organized on the basis that the 
whole estate of a feudal lord should descend inalienably 
to his eldest son. The property was thereby preserved 
entire in the family, and there was a head or chief who 
could do battle in his own cause, or in the cause of his 
paramount lord. As to the sons who did not happen to 
be born first, "there was no use for them." 

The end to be reached by American colonization re- 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 159 

quired that this castle of nobiUty should not be firmly 
built on this continent. INIany of the colonies adopted 
the rule of dividing estates among the children of a de- 
ceased parent. Different colonies made this partition in 
different ratios, but in several of them it approximated 
to a division of equality. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, estates were divided, 
giving to the eldest son a double portion. Other colo- 
nies had provisions similar in substance. 

This division of property operated beneficially upon 
the popular cast of the colonial governments. Massa- 
chusetts and Pennsylvania were more popularly inclined 
than Virginia and New York. But the essential benefit 
of the rule of partition was, tliat it created a more nume- 
rous yeomanry of moderate fortunes, brought a greater 
number of interests into connexion with the colonial 
governments, and was more congenial to the temper and 
feelings of the colonists. 

The prohibition to entail estates, to lock them up in 
a family through remote generations by testamentary 
provisions, when it came to be subsequently united with 
the rule of partition, laid the solid foundations of our re- 
publican equality. I do not mean an absolute equality 
of wealth, but such an equality as can be produced by 
the distribution of inheritances, the division of estates, 
and the rapid circulation of property. 

We have now enumerated two circumstances which 
promoted the popularization of the colonial governments : 
First, that many of the colonists came to America to 
escape from religious and political persecution; and 
second, that, in coming here, they left behind them the 
institutions and parts of institutions that were adverse to 
free government. These two circumstances gave to 
the colonies that were of purely popular origin, an 



160 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES, 

internal political organization "which, in some cases, ap- 
proached almost to a pure democracy. To the other 
colonies, whether originating with foreign corporations, 
or feudal nobles, or subjected immediately to the crown, 
the same circumstances imparted a highly popular cha- 
racter, and caused the colonial populace everywhere to 
demand, and in fact to exercise self-government. 

Other circumstances, of a more remote and indirect 
character, co-operated with the two just detailed, and 
aided in promoting the spirit of popular freedom in the 
colonies. Among these remoter circumstances, were 
the troubles in England which elevated Cromwell to 
power, and the character and conduct of Charles 11. 
The commotions which preceded the protector's eleva- 
tion, left the colonies to take care of themselves, and 
gave them leisure to bring to the test of practice their 
notions of government. The corrupt character, and 
the wants of Charles II., drew his attention away from 
the colonies. He seems to have estimated them accord- 
ing to the money he could get for them ; and, through 
one motive and another, he gave charters for Connecti- 
cut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, and the 
Carolinas. He even sold Virginia, for " a consideration," 
to Lord Culpepper for thirty years ; but the resistance of 
the Virginians annulled the grant which transferred them 
like serfs. 

All these different circumstances contributed to ren- 
der the people of the colonies a democratic people. 
Ever^'where they obtained a share in the legislation, 
and a populai* assembly in every colony gave them a 
voice in their government. 

It would be idle to ask what connexion tlie popular 
colonization now detailed had with the future fortunes of 
our republic. The connexion is apparent, plain, palpable. 



POPULAR COLONIZATION. 161 

The constitution of the Pilgrim Fathers, by which they on 
tlie deck of tlie Ma}'ilower formed themselves into "a civil 
body politic," was the type, the original model, after 
which the various colonial governments were in fact fash- 
ioned ; and when more than a century and a half had passed 
in preparation, the same democratic idea was the illumi- 
nating centre of that national organization which "we 
the people ordained and established." Can you not see 
tlie little pilgrim constitution pointing its religious finger 
away across a great interval of time, and claiming the 
kindred of parentage with its lineal child, the Consti- 
tution of the United States, to which a great nation in 
A. .1). 1789 stood godfixther? 

We have now reviewed the several attempts which 
were made to plant and govern colonies in America. 
Your attention has been drawn to the fact that the 
events and inlluences connected with these attempts in 
all their diverse ramifications, were prospective contri- 
vances which pointed onwards in time to that more 
grand and comprehensive result, which is developed in 
our national organization. Through storm and tempest, 
through sunshine and rain, under balmy airs, chilling 
frosts, and genial showers, the thirteen colonial plantings 
grew from little buds, put forth boughs and blossoms, and 
became goodly trees. We will presently see how they 
interlaced their branches, and formed that republican 
arbour under which we now repose, and for which a 
benign Providence caused them to be planted. 

The causes of the American Revolution will next 
engage our attention. 
o* 



LECTURE VI. 

CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

The colonies in general managed their internal affairs — England con- 
trolled their external affairs — Different interpretations of the con- 
nexion of the colonies with England, as given, (1) by the king ; (2) by 
the parliament ; (3) by the colonists — L First and great cause of tho 
Revolution to be found in the commercial policy of England towards 
the colonies — Commercial system of Europe — Its main idea — Gives 
rise to the colonial system of Europe — England's colonial policy 
arising from the commercial system — Restrictions on the colonies, 
(1) in favour of the merchants and ship-owners ; (2) in favour of the 
manufacturers ; (3) in favour of the land-holders — Effect on the co- 
lonies — Reasons of their submission to the restrictions — II. Second 
cause of the Revolution to be found in the African slave-trade^ 
England's participation in that trade, and its effect on the colonies— 
Their opposition to it overruled — Motives for its continuance — III. 
Third cause of the Revolution found in the destruction of the colo- 
nial system of Europe — Commercial wars arise among the European 
nations — Fall of the colonial system — Effect on the colonies — IV. 
Fourth cause of the Revolution, the attempt of Great Britain to 
tax the colonies — Commencement of this taxation — Reasons of the 
colonists for resisting it — Origin of taxation in England — Theory 
of the British Empire, as entertained in America — V. Minor 
grievances leading to the Revolution — Interference with the colonial 
currency — Importation of criminals — Violation of chartered rights— 
These causes all centred in the commercial system — Their long- 
continued action — Their final effect in the liberation of America. 

The causes which more immediately operated in 
bringing about the American Revohition, are another 
series of prospective contrivances which pointed for- 
ward in time to the organization of our national re- 
public. These causes harmonized in their results with 
the events and influences in our colonial history, to which 
I have already directed your attention, and to the con- 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 163 

sideration of them in their connexion with the estabhsh- 
ment of our government, we now" proceed. 

What were the causes of the American Revolution ? 
The answer to this question will form the subject of the 
present lecture. 

We have already given you an idea of the origin of 
the colonies, and of the various attempts that were made 
to gain the ascendency in their internal government. In 
these attempts the foreign corporations failed ; the sha- 
dows of royalty and feudal nobility remained indeed in 
the royal and proprietary plantations of America; but 
these shadows had little influence in the internal govern- 
ment of the country. The people, the colonists — the 
populace, properly so called — became in fact their own 
domestic governors, and made and executed their own 
laws. 

But if in their internal affairs the provinces approxi- 
mated to popular government, in their external relations 
the result was quite different. By their external rela- 
tions I mean their commerce, their affairs with other na- 
tions, and all their connexions with the rest of the 
world — especially with each other, and with England. 
In these external relations they came under the control 
of England ; for they not only had the English king for 
their paramount sovereign, but tlie parliament, in con- 
junction with the king, undertook to control, and did 
control, their commerce and other foreign affairs. Fully 
to comprehend the origin and extent of this control, we 
must keep in mind a clear and well defined idea of the 
political relations of the colonies, both to each other and 
to England. 

With each other they had no connexion except what 
arose from proximity — from fellow-feeling — from simi- 
larity of situation — and from a common dependence 



164 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

upon their mother country. There was, in fact, no po- 
litical cord running through them and binding them to- 
gether. But with England they stood in a connexion 
which most vitally affected them in all their hopes and 
interests. Let us inquire a little into the nature of this 
connexion as it was interpreted, first, by the king, 
second, by the English parliament, and third, by the 
colonists themselves ; and we will then be more able to 
form a correct view of the causes of that contest which 
separated the colonies from the mother country. 

(1.) We have already mentioned that King James 
advanced an exclusive claim to North America. He 
asserted in substance, that the new continent being dis- 
covered by English subjects, belonged to the crown, and 
that he, being by Divine right the wearer of that crown, 
was Lord of America, and entitled to dispose of it as 
he thought proper; and that parliament had no right to 
intermeddle in the matter. His son, the unfortunate 
Charles L, inheriting the crown and kingly notions of his 
father, maintained the same doctrine ; and regarded the 
American colonies as subjected to his sole control. 

(2.) But what did the English parliament say to these 
pretensions of their sovereign .'' That body strenuously 
resisted the claim which the crown advanced to the ex- 
clusive sovereignty over America, and avowed their own 
right to intermeddle in colonial matters. Their preten- 
sions were greatly favoured by the troubles which de- 
stroyed for a time the English monarchy, and also by 
the republican notions which prevailed during the time 
of the Commonwealth. After the restoration, and du- 
ring the reign of the weak and dissolute Charles H., the 
same parliamentary pretensions were advanced ; but it 
was not until the aristocratic revolution of A. D. 1688, 
that they were fully acquiesced in by the king. The 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 165 

parliament which at the opening of that revolution de- 
posed James II., and called William of Orange to the 
throne, anniliilated the Divine right of kings — at least of 
English kings — and cut up by the roots the royal pre- 
rogatives which had grown from this doctrine. For if 
kings could be made by an act of parliament, as was 
William III. — if they derived their crown from men — 
from lords and commons, the idea of a Divine right to 
the throne was a figment. This truth was felt after the 
English Revolution ; and the men who had handled royalty 
without gloves, did not hesitate to assert their right to 
interfere in all matters appertaining to the English crown. 
As between the king and parliament, therefore, the right 
of the latter to interfere in colonial matters was decided ; 
for there was no longer the idea of a Divine right, to 
uphold the king in his pretensions to exclusive sove- 
reignty in any affair concerning the crown. Accord- 
ingly, from the accession of William III., parliament, 
without opposition from the crown, intermeddled in the 
external affairs of the American provinces. The extent 
of their interference will be presently exhibited. 

(3.) But how did the colonists themselves interpret 
their connexion with England ? They rather coincided 
with the royal than with the parliamentary interpretation 
of that connexion. They acknowledged the paramount 
sovereignty of the king, and acquiesced in the doctrine 
that he was their feudal lord, and they his liege men 
and subjects. But they very significantly asked what 
parliament had to do with them, or they with parliament ? 
According to their notions, the parliament, whether 
subordinate to the king, or superior to him, was, in re- 
gard to the extent of its legislative authority, merely his 
council to aid him in governing the realm of England. 
If they did indeed admit the interference of that body, 



166 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

within what limits would its interference be circum- 
scribed ? On what subjects would an act of parliament 
bind them ? or ought it to bind them in any case ? 
These questions contained the marrow of a daring re- 
sistance, and were agitated along a whole century of 
colonial history. It is a little singular that, in discussing 
these questions, the colonies employed nearly the same 
language which had been used at an earlier day by the 
Divine-right kings, to maintain their exclusive sovereignty 
over America. They, indeed, coincided with the old Stu- 
art kings in maintaining that the English parliament had, 
of right, nothing to do with America. Such were the 
interpretations of the connexion of the provinces with 
England, as given by the Stuart kings, by the parliament, 
and by the early colonists themselves. Let us see the 
results of these incongruous theories, as developed in 
action. And as these results operated ultimately to de- 
stroy the sovereignty of the English kings over our 
country, we may group them together, and recognise 
in them the real causes of the American Revolution. 

What were these causes ? 

I. The first and great cause of the Revolution is to 
be found in the commercial policy which England pur- 
sued towards the plantations. 

The colonial policy of England, to be correctly ap- 
preciated, must be viewed in its connexion with the 
commercial system of Europe. And what were the 
elements of that system? We may briefly say that it 
was a system cnculating round one idea ; and this idea 
was, that gold and silver constituted the wealth of a na- 
tion. That a nation may accumulate gold and silver, 
its exports must exceed its imports ; it must sell more 
than it buys ; and the amount of its sales over its pur- 
chases, economically called the balance of trade, will be 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 167 

received in cash. The money thus drawn into a country- 
is the nation's gain, and constitutes its real weaUh. This 
was the main idea of the commercial system, and it 
might have been engraved on the rim of a shilling ; for 
it was all comprised in the single imperative, 

« Get gold and silver!" ' 

This doctrine is long ago exploded ; for a barrel of 
flour or a bushel of potatoes are as real and substantial 
wealth as a wedge of silver or gold. But the nations 
of Europe a century ago did not think so ; their motto, 
nay, their entire commercial creed, w^as 

" Get gold and silver — honestly if you can — but get 
gold and silver." 

The practice under this creed very materially affected 
the emigrants of the several European nations ; for when 
the idea of colonization came to be placed in connexion 
with the main idea of the commercial system, colonies, 
it was thought, might be made to administer greatly to 
the wealth of the parent country. This they might do 
either by consuming the articles of home produce, and 
paying for them in money, or by furnishing, at a cheap 
rate, articles of traffic whose exportation would bring 
back gold and silver. In each case, the mother country 
could only gain its end by assuming the entire control 
of their commerce. 

To create a nation for the purpose of trading to it, 
was certainly a business-like transaction ; yet this, with 
a few modifications, was the object which several of the 
European powers had in view in their attempts at colo- 
nization. But from whatever motives the colonies from 
any nation originated, it was evident that a monopoly 
of their entire commerce by the mother country would 
increase her wealth. Such at least was the commercial 
logic of Europe — a logic which has had a most exten- 



168 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

sive influence upon the happiness, enterprise, and whole 
destiny of the human race. For, this reasoning, and 
these views of weakh, were everywhere adopted just at 
the time when the New World, bursting from the long 
concealment of ages, was revealing to the eager, aching 
gaze of millions, its mineral treasures, its aboriginal cities, 
its luxuriant forests, its vast plains, rugged mountains, 
and rich valleys. But instead of leaving this exuberant 
continent to the men who might plant themselves upon 
it — instead of giving them liberty to cultivate it for their 
own benefit, and to reap the harvest which they might 
sow upon its soil — instead of allowing them to enjoy 
the fruits which nature here poured forth from her boun- 
tiful lap, their enterprise, the sweat of their brows, and 
the marrow of their bones w'ere sought, to be appro- 
priated to the pitiful service of amassing the precious 
metals in the Old World. The riches of America were 
sacrificed at the shrine of an idle theory ; and the human 
race, instead of expanding its arms on the Western Con- 
tinent with renewed energy, remained here for genera- 
tions subservient to the supposed interests of govern- 
ments and privileged classes on the other side of the 
Atlantic. 

How did the European nations so long maintain this 
power in America? They preserved it mainly by the 
fact, that they were all engaged in the same system of 
measures towards the New World. In a few years 
after the voyage of Columbus, Spanish cities, towns, 
and villas, studded the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific, 
and soon spread over the immense plains of South Ame- 
rica ; but Spain assumed the control of their trade in 
order to increase the precious metals at home. Holland 
having delivered herself from the bondage of her ancient 
masters, sent her enterprising people to the coast of 
Africa, to the shores of South America, and to the valley 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 169 

of the Hudson, and then she seized upon their com- 
merce, in order to accumulate gold and silver at home. 
France planted her lilies in the East, on the islands of 
the Indian Ocean, in the West Indies, along the St. 
Lawrence, and in the valley of the Mississippi. When 
she had established her colonies, she too monopolized 
their commerce, in order to accumulate gold and silver 
at home. The colonial policy of England conformed to 
that of her neighbours ; and she sought to monopolize 
the commerce of her people in America, in order to ac- 
cumulate gold and silver at home. Thus all Europe was 
engaged in the same rigorous system — a system whose 
most characterizing feature was an exclusive monopoly 
of colonial commerce ; and the same policy was pursued 
towards plantations in the West Indies, on the Spanish 
Main, on the coast of Africa, on the James River, on 
the Hudson, on the Delaware, and in New England. 

We notice this general colonial policy of Europe, 
because all these nations being interested each in main- 
taining the same exclusive system, were all in fact as- 
sociated in avowing the right of a parent country to ex- 
ercise an unlimited control over its colonies. Hence, so 
long as this rigorous system received the general appro- 
bation of Europe, the colonies of no one country could 
reasonably hope to succeed in freeing themselves from 
the oppression of the parent nation. For, all the nations 
being interested in the same policy, no one would be 
willing to aid a rebellion in the colonies of another, lest 
by so doing it should endanger its own foreign posses- 
sions. This remark will in part explain why the Ame- 
rican colonies so long acquiesced in the monopoly of 
their commerce by England. 

We have stated in general terms, that the American 
provinces were required by English legislation to sell in 
p 



170 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

England, and buy in England. To understand the 
nature and extent of these restrictions, let us detail a few 
particulars. The arguments in England urged in favour 
of assuming the control of this commerce, were based 
on the general doctrine of the commercial system ; but 
the several classes of Merchants, Shippers, Manufac- 
turers, and Land-owners, desirous of increasing their 
own immediate gains, became clamorous for a monopoly 
of the most stringent and exclusive kind, and put in 
their claims for the benefits to be derived from this 
trade. 

(1.) First came the mercantile and shipping interest. 
To favour this interest, the colonies were compelled to sell 
in England, and buy in England. Articles of traffic, with 
an exception to be presently noticed, were forbidden to be 
shipped from America to any ports except those of 
England. No merchandise was to be sent from Massa- 
chusetts, or Virginia, or Maryland, to France, or Ger- 
many, or Holland. The tobacco, the indigo, the cotton, 
and the iron of the American plantations, if shipped at all, 
must be shipped to England. There was the centre of 
all their commerce. The colonies were likewise prohi- 
bited from purchasing their foreign merchandise at any 
other markets than those of the parent country. If a piece 
of silk from France, or of linen from Holland, was wanted 
in Pennsylvania or Massachusetts, it could be obtained 
through English merchants, or through smugglers, but in 
no other legitimate way. The English merchants thus 
obtained a double monopoly ; they had tlie exclusive pri- 
vilege of purchasing the colonial produce, and the exclu- 
sive right of supplying them in turn with merchandise. 
To render the monopoly more secure, the Dutch and 
French merchants were excluded from the colonies. 
They could neither be agents nor principals there. 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 171 

Provision was next made that tlie colonies should not 
trade with each other. This was for the benefit of the 
English shipjiing interest ; for the object of the provision 
was that the intercolonial commerce should become the 
perquisite of English ship-owners. A Puritan of Mas- 
sachusetts could not enjoy a quid of James River to- 
bacco, except by paying an English trader for its im- 
portation. The Americans, it is true, might own ships, 
but they were restricted to a direct trade to the markets 
of the mother country. 

By these provisions England became the centre of 
her colonial trade ; and it was represented that such 
commercial regulations would make money accumulate 
there. They did accumulate it there — in tlie pockets of 
the merchants and ship-owners. 

(2.) But a second interest appeared; the English 
manufacturers desired a slice of the colonial pudding. 
To project this interest, the provinces were prohibited 
from engaging in the manufacture of the finer or more 
minute fabrics. They might build furnaces and make 
pig-iron, or they might grow wool or flax, or maple- 
sugar, for these were raw materials ; but they were not 
permitted to make a chisel, a saw, a pair of scissors, or 
a penknife, for these finer articles could be better manu- 
factured in England, and would make money centre 
there. In the intensity of this restrictive system, the 
colonists were not permitted to manufacture even their 
own wearing apparel ; the privilege of making such 
articles belonged exclusively to the manufacturer in Eng- 
land. It was directed that the crude materials should 
be carried to England, and manufactured articles brought 
back in return — in brief, they were envied a loom, a 
shuttle, a forge, or a smith-shop ; and grave statesmen 
framed acts of parliament against spinning-wheels in 



172 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

America. Traffic between one another had been pro- 
hibited for the benefit of the English ship-owner ; and 
the EngUsh manufacturer obtained a similar protection 
in the parliamentary legislation that forbade woollen 
goods, woollen hats, and similar fabrics, to be taken 
from one colony to another. 

(3.) But a third interest appeared. The English 
land-owners put in a claim to be protected. They de- 
manded that grain and other produce of an English farm 
should not be brought into England from the colonies, 
without paying a heavy tax or duty. The demand was 
granted ; and corn-laws were enacted to protect land- 
owners from the competition of the provinces. The 
farmer from Pennsylvania or Maryland could not enter 
an English port with his wheat or flour, without paying 
a heavy tax for the privilege. The English land-owner 
was the gainer ; for the American produce which inter- 
fered with his own was in reality excluded from English 
■ports. 

By such provisions the English merchants, ship- 
owners, manufacturers, and land-owners were protected, 
to the great sacrifice of colonial interests. I'here were, 
however, some articles of foreign produce whose intro- 
duction into England would interfere with some one of 
the interests we have now mentioned. These articles 
the colonists were permitted to carry to other parts of 
Europe ; but even here there were restrictions injurious 
as well as irritating. Run your eye along the map of 
Western Europe till you come to the northwestern corner 
of Spain, where the Bay of Biscay loses itself in the 
Atlantic Ocean : there is Cape Finisterre. To ports 
south of that cape the American merchants might export 
their grain, lumber, fish, and odier articles which were 
opposed to the difierent interests in England. Why 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 173 

limit them to the south of Cape Finisterre ? Because 
the Spaniards and residents along the shores of tlie 
Mediterranean did not manufacture articles which inter- 
fered with English interests. 

SucJi was tlie colonial system of England. What 
the merchant left the manufacturer devoured, and what 
the manufacturer left the shipper and land-owner de- 
voured ; and what tliey all eschewed might be shipped 
to ports south of Cape Finisterre. 

A Chinese lady, with her foot squeezed to the dimen- 
sions of a proper sized toe, or a papoose with his head 
shingled into an oblong shape, are not subjected to more 
unnatural pressure than were the colonies by these re- 
strictive regulations — and yet the provisions above enu- 
merated were enacted into a system by the close of the 
reign of William III., and for three-quarters of a cen- 
tury were perseveringly maintained by the English go- 
vernment. The beginning of tlie system was in the 
celebrated Navigation Act, passed during the protectorate 
of Cromwell. On the restoration of Charles II. in A. I). 
1660, many stringent additions were made to the legis- 
lative enactments respecting the colonies ; and all their 
interests were, on the part of England, intrusted to a 
Board of trade. But it was not until the aristocratic re- 
volution of A. D. 1688 had anniliilated the power of 
the Stuart kings, that this illiberal system was perfected. 

Do you ask why the colonies submitted to such op- 
pression ? Was not such a system more grievous than 
the taxation which was attempted in later times by the 
stamp act, the tea bill, and their congeners ? 

There were two reasons which induced them to sub- 
mit to such a monopoly. The first was, that the policy of 
England was the policy pursued by all the other Eu- 
ropean nations towards their colonies. This condition 
p* 



174 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

of things rendered their resistance unavailing ; for so 
long as all Europe was leagued in support of the same 
grinding system, it would have been idle in the infant 
Ameriean colonies to resist its oppression. The other 
nations of Europe, instead of aiding them in their oppo- 
sition, would have been impelled by every motive of 
interest to help England to punish such an evil example. 
The second reason which induced them so long to 
submit to these grievances, is to be found in the ideas 
they entertained of their relation to England. They ac- 
knowledged their subjection to the English crown ; and 
they admitted that the regulation of commerce was a 
royal prerogative. Rules of trade, if made by the king, 
would therefore have been within tlie limits of his au- 
thority ; and the process by which similar regulations 
came to be made by parliament, divsposed them quietly 
to acquiesce in the commercial legislation of that body ; 
for, by the changes which, soon alter the commencement 
of American colonization, took place in the English go- 
vernment, some of the royiil ])rerogatives either came to 
be exercised by pailiament, or were controlled by its 
votes. This occurred in an especial manner at the ac- 
cession of Cromwell ; when tlie parliament, among other 
royal prerogatives, seized ujion the power of regulating 
commerce. At the restoration of Charles II., but more 
particularly at\er the revolution of A. D. 1(588, this as- 
sumption of regal autlu)ri(y became well conlirmed ; and 
tlie English government, composed of the king and par- 
liament, continued to do, in commercial matters, what 
in earlier times the king himself had done. But the co- 
lonists, rather adhering to the old theory of tlie English 
government, and regarding the laws adecting their trade 
as made by their sovereign, though they were in fact 
made with the advice and consent of parliament, con- 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 175 

sidered tlie restrictions upon their commerce to be legal, 
but very oppressive. Hence, tlie commercial regula- 
tions above recited, thougli they make a figure in 
twenty-nine acts of parliament, were by the Americans 
rciiarded as tlie work of their sovereign alone. Ac- 
cordingly, tlie Declaration of Independence singles out 
the king as the great sinner, and sets forth that one of 
tlie injuries he inllicted upon us was, 

" The cutting off of our trade with all parts of tlie 
world." 

This "cutting off" had been commenced nearly a 
century before tlie penning of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; but on account of the two reasons just men- 
tioned, it had been with grumbling and resistance ac- 
quiesced in for generations. The commercial monopoly 
and the restrictions which we have now detailed, con- 
tained the seeds of our independence ; for, being a system 
of oppression, its natural etl'ect was to produce a spirit of 
deep-rooted dissatisfaction. This spirit it in fact did 
produce ; and our colonial history, through a hundred 
years, teems with manifestations of discontent and with 
murmurings, and is full of intimations that when the 
oppressed child grew strong, it would free itself from 
the shackles which in its youtli it had worn with so much 
impatience. 

In forming our estimate of these regulations, v/e must 
not forget that private interest, under the cloak of public 
good, dictated the entire system of colonial restriction. 
The merchant, the ship-owner, the manufacturer, and 
the land-holder, seized upon the popular idea of ac- 
cumulating gold and silver in England, and used it to 
promote their particular interests. When any one or all 
of these classes desired an increased share of the colonial 
spoils, they put forward the public good as their motive, 



176 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and asked an act of parliament to protect the labourer, 
and enrich England. But the English government gained 
nothing by the monopoly. Its power was used by mer- 
chants and others, to enrich themselves at the expense 
of the American plantations ; and the subjects of the 
king who were in England, invoked and obtained his 
aid to drive hard bargains with his subjects in America. 
They obtained this aid, because they succeeded in per- 
suading the king and parliament that it was for the public 
benefit to protect English merchants and manufacturers 
at the expense of the colonies. 

I have said that the English government received 
neither revenues nor benefit from this oppressive system; 
all the benefits went to the protected classes in England. 
They in reality directed, and we may say dictated the 
colonial policy of the English government. Hence, 
when, on the passage of the stamp act, the provinces 
threatened rebellion, these protected classes, fearing the 
loss of their monopoly of the western trade, interfered, 
and procured the repeal of that obnoxious act. No man 
who reads Burke's description of the influences which 
procured that repeal, can hesitate to conclude that the 
English merchants and manufacturers directed, at that 
time, the colonial policy of the British government. 
This, however, they did, as we have said, under the 
pretext of the public good — the public good both of 
England and the plantations. Such examples of anx- 
iety for the general welfare are frequently exhibited. 
It is said that when a certain sovereign came from 
Germany to take possession of the British throne, not 
being an Addison in the English language, he told the 
people, "Gentlemen, I have come for your goods, for 
all your goods." A solicitude similar in degree per- 
vaded the protected classes of England ; and their Ian- 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 177 

guage to the colonies through a hundred years was, 
" We are anxious for your goods — for all your goods." 

If the EngUsh government gained nothing by this 
restrictive poUcy, neither did the English labourer. It 
increased the price of colonial produce to the poorer 
classes in England ; but its most grievous legacy was 
the corn laws, which were enacted for the protection of 
the English land-owner, and which were the price for 
which the landed interest consented to aid the other in- 
terests in taking very good care of America. These laws, 
now vanishing, have long been squeezing the marrow 
from the bones, and the sweat from the brow of the 
English labourer. Their origin may be found in the co- 
alition of the mercantile, manufacturing, shipping, and 
agricultural interests, who entered into " a solemn league 
and covenant" to aid each other in getting exclusive 
possession of the commerce of the American colonies. 
Nor was this commerce a small item in the trade of the 
mother country. In A. D. 1720, the exports from 
England to the colonies amounted to about two millions 
and a half of dollars, and employed about one-third of 
the shipping of that nation. Forty years later, in A.D. 
1760, it amounted to about twenty-eight millions of dol- 
lars. In all this traffic, there was an unceasing effort to 
export to the colonies more than was imported from them, 
in order that there might be a continual balance of trade 
due to the mother country, the payment of which would 
draw across the ocean their gold and silver. In fact, 
the precious metals did disappear from America, and 
their place was supplied by paper money. 

The consequences of this exclusive commerce were 
soon felt, and might be briefly told by saying that it en- 
riched the merchants, manufacturers, and land-owners 
of England, and injured the British government, the 



178 ORIGIN OB" THE UNITED STATES. 

British labourers, and the provinces. To the latter it was 
the source of grievous evils ; but these evils became, in 
the general movements of the W'orld, the means of ex- 
citing, animating, and rousing up an injured people to 
assert their independence. 

11. A second cause of the American Revolution is to 
be found in the conduct of England in the African slave- 
trade. This grievance was closely connected with the 
commercial system just considered ; and, in certain points 
of view, made part of that system. Let us briefly ex- 
amine how the African slave-trade became connected 
with the fortunes of our country and contributed to 
American independence. 

In A. D. 1620, a Dutch ship sailed into the Chesa- 
peake, and landed a cargo of slaves on the James River. 
From that time to the present, negro slaves have been 
found in North America. During the first century of 
colonial life, a few negroes were from time to time in- 
troduced into the plantations. But the eighteenth century- 
opened with events deeply affecting the future fortunes 
of the black race, and strangely connecting slaves with 
the career of popular government. By the beginning 
of that century, the once mighty empire of Spain had 
grown weak. The line of her ancient monarchs was 
drawing to an end, in the person of a feeble and dying 
sovereign ; and the war of the Spanish succession lashed 
the elements of strife into a foam. Louis XIV. wished 
to place his grandson on the vacant throne of Spain ; but 
England and Germany resisted his wish, and all Europe 
was thrown into the uproar of a ten years' war. When 
it ended, England obtained, as her share of the spoils, a 
magnificent prize. Her prize was the monopoly of the 
slave-trade. By the treaty of peace at Utrecht, in A. D. 
1713, she gained the exclusive privilege of bringing 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 179 

African slaves into the Spanish West Indies, and to 
Spanish America. Immediately companies were char- 
tered, ships built, and for thirty years England was the 
active slave-merchant of the world. Her ships, and her 
ships exclusively, visited the African coast for slaves; 
and an immense harvest of profit was reaped from the 
unholy traffic. The western shores of Africa every- 
W'here bore witness to the activity of her traders, and 
with British manufactures the Christian nation purchased 
slaves from the black pagan kings on the African coast. 
These slaves were shipped to the West Indies, to the 
Spanish Main, and to the North American colonies. 
Their importation into the plantations was found a profit- 
able mercantile speculation ; and the English slave-ships 
entered with their cargoes into every port on the Atlantic 
south of Maine. 

But the provinces at an early day dreaded the intro- 
duction of negroes. They tried at first to legislate upon 
the subject, and passed laws prohibiting their importa- 
tion ; but slaves were an article of commerce, and Bri- 
tain had undertalien to regulate the trade of America. 
The anti-slavery legislation they attempted consequently 
came in collision with the legislation of the mother 
country, and was nullified. Repulsed here, they tried 
remonstrance upon the subject; but what did English 
merchants and manufacturers care for a colonial re- 
monstrance ? It was opposed to their interests, and was 
not worth the paper on which it was written. The en- 
during Quaker might talk of the light of God in the soul, 
and assert that man was of divine right free ; the Puritan 
might remonstrate against trafficking in the image of his 
Creator ; and the planter of the south might send his 
petition to the throne, that he might not be overrun by 
negro slaves ; but all these petitions, remonstrances, and 



180 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

sublime truths, were unheard and unheeded in the on- 
ward thundering of the great Juggernaut of commercial 
interest. Enghsh merchants, counting their money, and 
eating their beef and pudding, thought only of making 
yellow guineas out of black Africans. 

The colonists were, however, strenuous in their op- 
position to the slave-trade, notwithstanding their legis- 
lation had been disregarded, and their remonstrances 
treated with neglect. The Penns tried to abolish slavery, 
and prevent the introduction of negroes into the province 
of Peiuisylvania ; but the attempt failed. Oglethorpe 
excluded slaves from Georga, till the British government 
ordered their introduction. Virginia persevered in her 
opposition; "but," says Mr. Madison, "the British 
government constantly checked the attempts of Virginia 
to put a stop to this infernal traffic." South Carolina, 
like Virginia, tried to close its ports against slave-ships ; 
but South Carolina had recognised the right of the Bri- 
tish government to regulate colonial commerce, and her 
resistance to the slave-trade was ineflectual. These ef- 
forts did not set bounds to the dark current which inte- 
rest caused to flow from the African coast. The entire 
commercial policy of England in reference to this trade 
may be announced in a single sentence, as follows : 

" We cannot allow the colonies to check or in any 
degree discourage a traffic so beneficial to the English 
nation." 

So said the Earl of Dartmouth in A. D. 1777, when 
the American jewel was falling from the English crown. 
His earlship felt the passion which urged the negro upon 
our country, and cleared at a bound all the hedges and 
obstructions raised by the people. 

But, beside this commercial motive for forcing the 
negro upon the provinces, there were political consider- 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 181 

ations which were powerfully operative in bringing about 
the same result. "Negroes," said the British states- 
men, " negroes cannot become republicans ; they will 
be a power in our hands to restrain the unruly colonists." 
Here was the germ of the opposition of the British go- 
vernment to a cessation of the slave-trade. Mercantile 
interest, without doubt, suggested the argument ; but 
the government, by adoption, made the suggestion its 
rule of action, and slave-ships continued to visit every 
port from Rhode Island to Florida. The colonies were 
thus kept as an open market for slaves, both for a com- 
mercial and political reason — the commercial reason 
w^as, rich profits ; the political reason was, that negroes 
could not " become republicans." These two powerful 
motives kept the whole sea-coast open to the slave-ships ; 
and it was not until the assembling of the Continental 
Congress, at the breaking out of the Revolution, that the 
aggregate opinion of the country was announced in an 
etiective manner. Among the first transactions of that 
body was an act which forbade the introduction of slaves. 

The irritation of the provinces in this matter is ener- 
getically set forth in a clause introduced by Mr. Jefferson 
into the original draft of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and which reads as follows : 

'< He (the King of Great Britain) has waged cruel 
war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred 
rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant peo- 
ple who never offended him, captivating and carrying 
them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur 
miserable death in their transportation thither. This 
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is 
the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. De- 
termined to keep open a market where men should be 
bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup- 
Q 



182 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

pressing every legislative attempt to restrain this exe- 
crable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors 
might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now ex- 
citing those very people to rise in arms among us, and 
purchase that liberty, of which he has deprived them, by 
murdering the people upon whom he has obtruded them : 
thus paying off former crimes committed against the 
liberties of one people, by crimes which he urges them 
to commit against the lives of another." 

This clause, for reasons affecting Georgia and the 
Carolinas, was, with several others, stricken out of the 
Declaration by Congress, before that instrument was 
signed ; but it is a faithful exposition of the opinion of 
the provinces upon this subject. They knew as well as 
statesmen in England that negroes could not here " be- 
come republicans;" and their knowledge of the mo- 
tives which induced the British government to persevere 
in bringing slaves into America, rendered them the more 
averse to their importation. 

The grievances from this source co-operated with 
others to drive them finally to an assertion of their in- 
dependence. I mentioned that the slave-trade origi- 
nated in the commercial system, that prolific parent of 
many evils. To the same common origin may be re- 
ferred the next cause of the Revolution, to which we 
now proceed. 

III. The third cause of the American Revolution is 
found in the decay and destruction of the colonial sys- 
tem of Europe. 

We have seen that this severe system was the le- 
gitimate child of the commercial system, and was one 
of the agencies by which the several nations of Europe 
endeavoured to accumulate gold and silver. The na- 
tions which were principally interested in it, were France, 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 183 

England, and Spain, who each sought to increase her own 
pow^er and riches from the forests, the mines, the fishe- 
ries, and the fields of the new w^orld. The treasures of 
Montezuma and the Incas, and all the plunder of the 
south, were quickly consumed ; but the West Indies, the 
valley of the Mississippi, and the immense mountains, 
plains, and rivers, from Hudson's Bay to Patagonia, re- 
vealed perennial fountains of wealth, and charmed the 
imagination with gorgeous visions, in which were seen 
" apples of gold in pictures of silver." 

Down to the close of the war of the Spanish succes- 
sion, in A. D. 1713, the nations of Europe paid a tole- 
rable respect to the colonial rights and claims of each 
other ; but after that time commercial cupidity began to 
extend its iron arm to the colonies of the rival powers 
of Europe, and disturb their repose — former objects of 
national ambition ceased to interest the maritime nations 
— commerce became the all-absorbing object of attention, 
and courts and cabinets were swayed by the hopes and 
fears of merchants. This ascendency of the commer- 
cial interest became speedily destructive of the colonial 
system. Spain, France, and England, in the hope of 
gain began to violate the colonial rights and claims of 
each other. In these invasions England was the aggres- 
sor.; France imitated her ; and Spain, afi;er suffering from 
the rapacity of her neighbours, became bold in playing 
at the same game. Two consequences followed ; En- 
gland and Spain engaged in a commercial war in A. D. 
1739, and England and France in a war for foreign 
possessions. Let us trace these two consequences a 
little in detail. 

The commercial war between England and Spain may 
be coimected directly with the monopoly of the slave- 
trade, which England obtained at the close of the war of 



184 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the Spanish succession. By the grant of that monopoly, 
England acquired the exclusive right of furnishing slaves 
for the several markets of America and the West Indies ; 
but, excepting this grant, Spain claimed the exclusive 
commerce of her plantations. The British slave-ships, 
however, soon interfered with these claims ; for, when 
they entered the ports of Spanish America to dispose of 
their slaves, they also began to import silks, spices, and 
all the various articles of commerce. This was an en- 
croachment which the Spaniards were not disposed to 
tolerate ; for it struck at the very life of their colonies. 
Spain accordingly remonstrated with England, against 
this invasion of her rightful commerce ; but the British 
government being in these matters much swayed by 
slave-traders and commercial interests, disregarded the 
remonstrances, and English ships continued to interfere 
with the Spanish American trade. After twenty years 
of irritation upon the subject, the two nations came to 
an open rupture in A. D. 1739. From that time the 
nations of Europe ceased to act in concert in regard to 
their foreign interests ; and from that time colonial inde- 
pendence was possible. Previously to this commercial 
war, a colonial revolt would have received no favour in 
Europe ; but after this time, such a movement was cer- 
tain to find friends in the European rivals of the mother 
country. 

I'hus the English monopoly of the slave-trade, be- 
side its direct effect and grievous evils, also began the 
ruin of the colonial system of Europe. The war into 
which England and Spain entered on this account, be- 
came, however, merged in the great ocean of European 
strife ; for Frederick of Prussia in A. D. 1741 invaded 
the dominions of Austria ; and soon France, Spain, and 
Prussia were arrayed on one side, and Great Britain, 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 185 

Holland, and Austria on the other. All Europe became 
one great battle-field ; and it-was not till the peace of 
Aix-la-Chapelle, in A. D. 1748, that the general com- 
motion subsided, to be soon renewed with increased 
fury. The colonial rights and possessions of the three 
great maritime nations were, during this strife, invaded 
by each other, and the New World felt the angry pas- 
sions of the old. For example, the English colonies of 
North America engaged in aid of their mother country in 
the expedition to Louisburg, the stronghold of the French 
on Cape Breton, and indeed in North America. Its 
capture gave evidence of the power of the colonies ; 
and the preparations by France for its recovery, showed 
the importance which that nation attached to its foreign 
possessions. 

But it was not till the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had 
given the world a few years of doubtful repose, that the 
conflicting claims of France and England in North Ame- 
rica put an end entirely to the colonial system of Eu- 
rope. France had early planted her nurseries in the 
West Indies, along the St. Lawrence, and at a few 
widely separated points on the Mississippi. Religious 
zeal lent its aid to her political projects, and sent French 
missionaries to the Indians on the great lakes of the north, 
and in the valley of the west. By discovery, explora- 
tion, and partial settlement, she claimed the valley of 
the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and soon per- 
ceived the policy of uniting these territorial possessions, 
and making of them one grand colonial empire. In ac- 
complishment of this purpose, French forts were con- 
structed at different points along the St. Lawrence and 
the lakes ; and another series along the Mississippi and 
its tributary streams towards tlie north. It was certainly 
Q* 



186 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

a grand project to unite Canada and Louisiana, and 
make them one united and continued French possession. 

But how did such a project harmonize with the pre- 
tensions of England and l\er American provinces ? It 
was an interference with these pretensions, and an in- 
tolerable restriction upon her plans and prospects. It was 
an interference, because the territorial claims of England 
extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With the 
exception of a few provinces, each colony was limited 
westward only by the great ocean. But if tlie French 
gained the valley of the Mississippi, the Alleghany 
Mountains, and not the Pacific, would become the 
western boundary of the English settlements; for every 
spring and stream that rose and flowed on the west of 
those mountains, emptied its waters into the Mississippi, 
and was within the French claim — the Tennessee, the 
Ohio, the Illinois, the Cumberland, the Missouri ; in a 
word, all the rivers between the Alleghany and Rocky 
Mountains, even to their fountain-heads, were on French 
soil. To allow France the possession of this great val- 
ley would confine the English entirely to the Atlantic 
border, and indeed would, in all probability, ultimately 
exclude tliem from the American continent. Such a 
claim on the part of France struck, therefore, at the very 
life of their most valuable possessions ; and was, both 
by the colonies and by Great Britain, immediately re- 
sisted. The French proceeded, however, to erect forts 
along the Ohio and northern lakes ; and hardly was the 
ink of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle dry, when this new 
cause of commotion began to develope itself. 

Remonstrances and demands, projects and counter- 
projects passed between London and Paris, and still the 
operations of the French on the head waters of the Mis- 
sissippi continued. The Anglo-Americans themselves be- 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 187 

came alarmed at the prospect of falling under the domi- 
nion of the French, and took up arms ; England sent her 
soldiers ; Braddock and Washington marched for Pitts- 
burgh, and encountered a fatal resistance from the 
French and Indians on the Monongaliela. And yet, 
while Frenchmen were building forts on the Ohio, and 
Indians yelling along the western slope of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, the courts of London and Versailles 
were bowing with diplomatic politeness, and renew- 
ing to each other " the assurance of their distinguished 
consideration." But slowly the fire of hostility be- 
tween tlie two nations kindled. It sent forth a warn- 
ing smoke from Braddock's field — it sparkled — it 
burst into a blaze — it WTapped the civilized world in 
its flames. 

War was declared between the two nations, and 
North America was tlie prize. This was, in its origin, a 
colonial war. It began on the Ohio; but soon involved 
all the powers of Europe. Its battles were fought in 
the heart of Germany, in the Netherlands, in Spain, and 
on the Atlantic ; while fai* away, on the other side of the 
globe, in the Indian Ocean, in Hindostan, in the valley 
of the Ganges, and in the picturesque g'e\rdens of Asia, 
French and English soldiers met in the deadly strife ; and 
Rajahs and Asiatic peasants were frightened by a struggle 
for the Mississippi valley. In North America itself, the 
provinces entered into the contest according to their abili- 
ty. Wolfe died before Quebec — Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point heard the cannonade ; and through all the strife, 
tlie colonies along the Atlantic stood side by side with 
their mother countiy. They were part of the prize for 
which the world had been thrown into an uproar ; and 
their apprehension of falling under the dominion of 
France, caused them to contribute their money and 



188 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

their blood to the warfare ; and they sent their sons to 
fight on the north and west. 

This seven years' war closed with the peace of Paris, 
in A. D. 1763. Its results were fatal to the power of the 
French in North America — they lost all their possessions 
there. The British gained Canada, and the whole country 
west, as far as the Mississippi river. All the region lying 
east of that river, and extending away towards the re- 
mote north, came into the undisputed possession of 
Great Britain; France lost all — her whole power in 
North America was annihilated. 

The results of this contest to the Atlantic colonies 
were very important, and deeply affected the future for- 
tunes of America. The French, while in possession of 
(-anada, kept them always in fear of being subjected to 
France, and operated like an external pressure, to force 
them into closer union with Great ]?ritain ; but when, 
by the conquest of Canada, they were relieved Iroui 
this pressure, they were more at liberty to dispute the 
pretensions of their mother country. This result of the 
wnr was, therefore, of great benefit to them in respect to 
their liberation from Great Britain. Farther, by this 
war the colonial system of Europe lost its balance, and 
was, in fact, completely overturned. France was no 
longer interested with England, in the common cause 
of makin": rain from the New World. Her interest in 
North America was destroyed, and as England had 
stripped her of her foreign possessions, she stood ready 
to reciprocate the favour, and to aid in unfrocking her 
rival, either through the agency of a colonial revolt, or 
by any other available means. 

The leading nations of Europe had, therefore, no 
longer the same interests in America — man and Liberty 
gained what France lost, and the independence of the 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 189 

American provinces became a practicable afl'air. This 
was another result of the commercial wars, which was 
of great service to our country. ^ 

The colonies were thus freed from the presence of a 
dangerous and dreaded enemy in Canada, and gained 
in France a friend to assist them in their struggle for 
liberty. But besides these two beneficial results, they 
derived other very material advantages from the same 
" gentle and joyous Passage of Arms," inasmuch as it 
accustomed them to union among themselves, and taught 
tliem the advantages of acting in concert. They also 
learned from it the extent of their own force and re- 
sources, and took some valuable lessons in the military 
art. 

We have mentioned, that in these contests the thirteen 
colonies stood side by side with their mother country. 
But notwithstanding this assistance, when the seven years' 
war ended, they found themselves yet more oppressed 
than before it commenced — for that war was made the 
foundation of other impositions by Great Britain. Eng- 
land adopted a species of logic which was more con- 
vincing in the curtained cabinets of princes, than among 
the "diggers' up of trees-roots" in America. She 
reasoned in substance as follows: "To preserve the 
American colonies, I have waged a grievous war — I 
must derive a i)art of the expenses of that war from 
them — I have defended them, and therefore will tax 
them." 

IV. This brings me to another cause of the American 
Revolution ; namely, the attempt of Great Britain to tax 
the colonies. 

The stamp act and tea duty have been interwoven 
into the history of our Revolution, and figiu'C very (>x- 
tensively m Fourth of July orations. But were these the 



190 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

first allcmptsof Eiioiaiul to tax the colonies? Not at all. 
Iviin your eye alonj^ the map of history till you approach 
the eoimiu'iicement of the last century. What are the 
New En^'landers, the Yankees of that " lons^ lime a2;o," 
then doing? 'i'hey are driving on a profitable business 
^vith the French West Indies, in the importation of sngar 
and molasses. And what do they make of these sweet 
articles? Rum. Shipping into the northern ports im- 
mense quantities of West India molasses, they distilled 
it, and made large profits. This interfered with the 
interests of lOnirlish manufacturers and West India mo- 
mojiolists ; and in A. D, 1733, the British parliament 
regulated tliis trade by imposing a heavy duty on sngar 
and molasses. This was the llrst tax' laid by Great 
Bril;iin on her American plantations. Even this, how^- 
ever, was done under the pretence that the duty was a 
commercial regulation, and not a tax for revenue. 

But commercial regulation though it might be, the 
New Englanders refused to submit to it. The duty im- 
posed amounted to a prohibition — but smuggling evaded 
the act of parliament, and rum continued to be manu- 
factured, to the great annoyance of England. 'J'he 
sugar and molasses soured instead of sweetening tl>e 
parties. Britain was willing that her colonies should 
have slaves; but to manufacture rum in l^oston was con- 
trary to English morality — that is, to English commcrciid 
interests. But it was reserved to another generation 
to dinclope the results of a direct tax imposed upon 
America. 

In A. D. 17G4, the celebrated stamp act was incon- 
sidi'rately passed, and allorded the occasion of manifesting 
the views of the provinces respecting their connexion with 
(oeat Ihitian. Let us detail a few of the facts connected 
with this celebrated act, and tlien we can more clearly 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 191 

perceive the position of our country at tliis interesting 
period. 

What was the stamp act? I need hardly inform you 
that it proposed to raise a revenue by compelling the 
colonists to write their notes, deeds, bonds, wills, and 
other commercial and legal instruments, on paper or 
parchment which, like coin, was stamped with figure- 
heads and other devices. For every such piece of paper 
or parchment, a tax varying from a few pennies to eight 
or ten pounds, was to be paid to the English treasury. 
In a word, it was a tax on the industry of the colonies. 
Its injustice roused their indignation, and it was every- 
where vehemently opposed. In Boston it jiroduced 
riots ; and violent opposition was made to it from Mas- 
sachusetts to Georgia. The English merchants and 
manufacturers became alarmed — they dreaded the loss 
of their monopoly of the American trade — and at their 
urgent entreaty, the obnoxious act was re})ealed. 

High blazed the bonfires of joy throughout America 
when the repeal was announced. But the exultation 
was evanescent ; it was the halloo of those not yet out 
of the woods ; for, in the next year, anotlier attempt was 
made to impose a tax upon them. Parliament passed 
an act laying certain duties on tea, paper, glass, and 
other articles, upon their importation into the colonies. 
They had hitherto, for reasons already stated, acquiesced 
in the numerous restrictions imposed by the twenty-nine 
acts of parliament upon their commerce. They had 
sometimes, it is true, grievously murmured ; but for a 
"whole century they had submitted to the commercial 
system of Great Britain. In all these restrictions, the 
British parliament had never pretended to raise a re- 
venue from a tax on their labour ; on the contrary, 
its legislation for them was all professedly directed to 



192 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ihc regulation of rommcrcc. But now an altompt was 
made to tax tliem tor the avowed j)ur{)o.se ol' raising 
a revenue for the treasury in England. The stamp act 
had been passed for this purpose ; and the tea bill pro- 
vided for a similar tax. When this measure was an- 
nounced in America, a ferment was again created through 
the country, and again the Jiritish mercliants and manu- 
facturers became alarmed ; and the duties imposed were 
repealed, except the tax on tea — that remained. 

During these proceedings, some of the colonies had 
ceased all intercourse with Great Britain. To bring 
matters to a crisis, the English East India Company 
sent cargoes of tea to New York, Boston, Philadelj)liia, 
Charleston, and other ports. ]Jut the Americans were 
united in their ojiposition to parllamenlary taxation ; and 
the tea-ships to New York and Philadelphia, were sent 
back by the inhabitants to London, At Charleston the 
tea was landed, and stored away to si)oil in damp cel- 
lars. At Boston — but you know the story ; the Bos- 
ton ians made an ocean of tea. 

These attempts at taxation kindled the smoking fire 
into a blaze ; and from the day the tea was thrown into 
Boston harbour, the authority of England over the 
American colonies was in fact at an end ; for next came 
the l\)rt Bill, by which ])ailiament closed the port of 
Boston till satisfaction should be rendered for the de- 
struction of the tea — a satisfaction which was received 
when Cornwallis fired his last shot from the fortifications 
at Yorktown. 

What were the grounds of the violent opposition in 
America to taxation by the British ])arlianient ? That 
o))position was founded in the whole history and life of 
the Anglo-Saxon race. The colonists never forgot 
liom wluit ancestors they were principally descended. 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 193 

They never forgot that taxes were the free gift of the 
])e()ple who pjiid Ihem ; and they could not undcisliind 
how tlicy eouhl give a I'rvv. gift wlicn they were nol pre- 
sent either by representation or otherwise in the Jiiilish 
parhanient, where the tax was hiid and the gift given. 
They knew the origin of taxation ; they knew tliat, in 
tlie early history of the race from which tliey were de- 
scended, no taxes in money were paid. 'I'hey liad 
learned that, in (lie nigged days of iMiglish life, ;m 
Anglo-S.ixon paid his lax with his sword ; wiUi his svvoid 
he fought lor his chief, and, by its sturdy strokes, dis- 
charged his debts to his prince ; and, when in latter times 
a Hritish House of Commons was formed, it w;is formed 
by the kings to obtain grants of money from tlie people. 
No English king ever dared, in li Is liou is of greatest tyran- 
ny, to impose, of his own authority, a direcl tax upon tiie 
people. If Charles I. levied duties wiUiout the consent 
of his people, he did it on the claim at least that they had 
been gr.mtedto him ; and he lost his head for taking moiu^y 
without tlu! consent of his people. Not even his claim 
to regulate commerce could shield him, when his com- 
mercial regulations were used for oppressive taxiilion. 

Thus, through all Knglish history, the English people 
(•laimed tin; exclusive right of granting their own money 
at their own good jdeasure to the royal treasury. This 
was the bold, prominent fact in their domestic; history ; 
and this practi(;e, or right, they considered ess(,'ntial to 
the existence of a spark of liberty. 'I'hcir sovereign 
was armed with the sword ; but wliilc the jx'ople held 
the j)urs(! tliey could direct the sword. |{y llieir purse 
they had purchased many political ])rivileg('S in the times 
when the divine right of kings was a fundamental article 
in the ])olitical creed. Jiy the purse they had controlled 
their sovereign in times when that creed was yielding to 
It 



194 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the other behef that the people can make their sovereign 
and unmake him. To grant their money therefore in 
their own way, was deemed essential to the very life 
and being of their liberties. 

The American provinces had grown up with these 
ideas, and made them part of their political theory. 
The people of the colonies were principally of English 
extraction, and had drawn from England their elemental 
notions of political rights. Among these notions was 
the idea that taxes are the free gift of the people who 
pay them ; an idea which was deeply inwrought into the 
very staple and essence of their political notions, and 
brought forth the fruits of uncompromising opposition to 
parliamentary taxation. 

But ought they of right to be exempt from all taxa- 
tion ? This they did not claim. During generations of 
toil they had hewn down the forest, and made many 
laws for their own government. To support their go- 
vernment, to pay the oflicers of their own appointment, 
to raise armies for the purpose of fighting the French and 
Indians, they had always taxed themselves. But by what 
authority did parliament tax tliem ? Where did parlia- 
mentary taxation begin ? where end ? or why begin at 
all ? 'I'hese were grave questions, which were asked by 
adventurous emigrants on this side of the Atlantic ; but, 
on the other side of the Atlantic, the facts contemplated, 
and the reasonings founded upon them, wore somewhat 
dillt-rent. It was there alleged that Great Britain had 
defended the colonies against the French and Indians. 
Had not Braddock fallen on the Monong;ihela, and 
Wolfe on the St. Lawrence ? Had not liritish armies 
fought in every region of the world for the preservation 
of their rights.-' And was Britain entitled to no re- 
muneration for such sacrifices ? Such were the questions 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 195 

and allegations of men in Great Britain ; and, in view 
of tliese matters, and of all the relations of the colonies 
to England, parliament asserted tlie right to tax them in 
all . eases whatever. This was expressly announced in 
the Declaratory Act of A. D. 17GG, which accompanied 
tlie repeal of the stamp act. 

What answer did the men in the M^oods of America 
make to tliese transatlantic questions and assertions ? 
Tliey denied tliat great benefits had been conferred upon 
tliem by Britain ; or that, if benefits had been conferred, 
they did not warrant Britain in oppressing them with an 
iniquitous taxation. It must be admitted (hat they did 
not speak or act very consistently with each other in re- 
gard to the extent of parliamentary authority over them. 
I mean tliat there did not exist through the colonies 
much uniformity of views or conduct in regard to the 
rights of parliamentary interference. Some of them had, 
long before the passage of the stamp act, denied the 
right of parliament to exercise any authority over tliem ; 
others had admitted the right of that body to legislate 
for them in matters of commercial regulation, but no 
farther. The truth is, there was not even in America 
any recognised or settled line by which the colonial le- 
gislation of parliament was bounded ; but this diversity 
of opinion grew less and less and gradually disappeared ; 
and a few years before tlie commencement of the Revo- 
lution they became pretty uniform in denying the right 
of parliament to exercise any authority over them. They 
had acquiesced in the legislation of that body so long as 
its legislation was ostensibly directed to the regulation 
of commerce. They had indeed often murmured and 
smuggled ; but still they acquiesced. But now, when 
parliament advanced in its claims to legislate for them ge- 
nerally, they began to deny its authority. Nor were they 



196 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

contented with merely acting on the defensive ; for, 
pretty much in proportion as Great Britain sought to in- 
crease and extend her authority over them, they 
sought to reject wliat she had formerly exercised ; and 
by the time parliament announced its right to legislate 
for them in every case wliatever, they denied its right to 
legislate for them in any case whatever. 

This was the result at which the parties arrived by 
the year 1776. By that time the colonies had become 
tolerably unanimous in their views respecting their rela- 
tions to Great Britain. These views, when drawn up in 
form, and as entertained by Jellerson, Adams, Hancock, 
and others, may be brielly stated as ibllows : 

The British parliament has full power to legislate for 
that part of his majesty's dominions which lie in Eng- 
land, Ireland, and Scotland. Over these islands its 
legislative authority is supreme. In like manner the 
legislature of Virginia has authority to make laws for 
that part of his majesty's dominions which lie in Vir- 
ginia. Over this region its legislative power is supreme. 
The other colonial legislatures are clothed with powers 
similar to those possessed by the legislature of Virginia, 
and each is supreme within its territory. The legisla- 
ture of Virginia has no right to make laws for the people 
in Great Britain, nor has parliament a right to legislate 
for the people of Virginia in any matter. In a word, 
the legislatures of each of the provinces and the parlia- 
ment of Britain, are all on the same foundation: each 
is a legislative body for a province of the British Empire. 
If his majesty desires money from his province of Vir- 
ginia, he can get it only by obtaining a grant of it from 
the legislature of Virginia. II" he desires money from 
his province of England, Ireland, and Scotland, he can 
get it only by a grant from parliament. If he desires 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 197 

money from Massachusetts he must ask Massachusetts 
for it. In each case his request may be refused or it 
may be gTanted. But it is intolerably arrogant that men 
chosen in England, one province of the British Empire, 
should undertake to legislate for Virginia, another pro- 
vince of the same empire. 

This was in substance the theory which the colonists 
adopted respecting their relation to Great Britain. A 
few obvious consequences tlowed immediately from it, 
and it soon allbrded a pretty wide range for political 
speculation and action. One of the obvious conse- 
quences of this theory was, that the British Empire was 
composed of numerous parts or provinces, each of 
which was, in matters of legislation, independent of the 
others ; each had supreme legislative power within its 
territory, but no right to interfere with the rest. The 
British islands were one of ihese imperial provinces, and 
each of the American colonies was another. At the 
head of all these provinces sat his majesty the king. 
Another obvious consequence of tliis theory was the an- 
nihilation of all parliamentary legislation for the colonies. 
For the men who adopted such a theory of independent 
provincial legislation, were not slow to declare the twenty- 
nine acts of parliament for regulating colonial commerce 
to be twenty-nine acts of usurpation. They declared the 
whole century of colonial restrictions by pai'liament to be 
a whole century of tyranny, and derided the stamp act, tea 
bill, and other attempts to subject them to the supreme 
control of parliament. 

These were natural fruits of the theory of independent 
legislative power. The colonies were, in this view of 
their relations, each legislatively independent of the rest ; 
but all having a common head in the king. But soon 
many bolder spirits in America went a step farther, and 

R* 



198 ORIGIN OF THE UNITKD STATES. 

asserted that the English king had no right to any su- 
premacy over them ; and they also affirmed that English 
emigrants came here to escape from bondage at home- 
and .that, when here, they did not come under the pro- 
tection or control of the crown. They went farther. 
They derided the pretensions of the English sovereign 
to Noith America ; and asserted that the native Indians 
were the original owners, and that the colonists, by pur- 
chase or conquest from them, had a right to the soil and 
sovereignty of the countiy. An Indian deed, with all 
its rude hieroglyphics of bears, snakes, and canoes, was 
of infinitely greater worth than a royal patent. This was 
the more popular doctrine of the northern provinces. It 
of course struck at the root of all regal and parliamentary 
authority, and made the people who were on the ground 
the owners of the sovereignty as well as of the soil. 

These views of their relations to Great Britain made 
the Americans earnest in asserting their intention to take 
care of themselves. Descendants of Englishmen, they 
knew the rights of Englishmen — Protestants by religious 
persuasion, they cherished their political and religious 
freedom — republicans by practice, they highly valued 
the rights of self-government — educated in a knowledge 
of freedom, they never forgot their political instruction ; 
and far removed from their parent country by three 
thousand miles of ocean, they grew accustomed to take 
care of themselves. Thus educated, thus separated from 
their ancient home, thus left in the woods, thus believing, 
and thus acting, these "diggcrs-up of trees' roots" became 
bold for liberty, tenacious of their rights, and uncom- 
promisingly hostile to parliamentary taxation. 

This repugnance to parliamentary legislation was 
exhibited at dillerent points of time through all tlie 
colonial history. For example, Massachusetts, more 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 199 

(han a century before the Declaration of Independence, 
had asserted in her remonstrances to England, that her 
own legislature, and not parliament, was the highest le- 
gislative authority known to her charter and laws. Si- 
milar denials had been implied in declarations from 
other provinces ; but it was not until the smouldering 
fires of the Revolution were ready to burst into a flame, 
that they all, with one accord, united in denying, deri- 
ding, and setting at nought the legishition of parliament. 
Having arrived at this uniformity of belief, they inserted 
in the Declaration of Independence as one of their griev- 
ances, that 

'< He" (the king of Great Britain) " has combined 
■with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 
constitutions, and unacknowledged by our law ; giving 
his assent to llieir acts of pretended legislation for im- 
posing taxes upon us without our consent." The at- 
tentive reader need not be informed that the British 
parliament were the " others" with whom the king com- 
bined, and whose acts of pretended legislation were an 
infringement of colonial rights and privileges. True to 
their theory that the king, and not the parliament, was 
tlie sovereign authority to which they had owed allegi- 
ance, the provinces in the Declaration of Independence, 
laid all their grievances to his charge. He is the great 
sinner — parliament they do not once name. 

This attem})t at taxation was the more immediate 
cause of the explosion between the colonics and the 
mother country. But we must not forget that there were 
other grievances which, though of minor magnitude, 
contributed to the same result. 

V. One of these minor grievances was the interference 
of the British parliament with the colonial currency. 
We have seen that the main idea of the connnercial 



200 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

system was, that a country grows rich in proportion to 
its accumulation of gold and silver. To accumulate 
gold and silver in England, the commerce of America 
was so regulated that there was constantly a balance of 
trade in favour of England. In other words, the colonies 
received more merchandise from England than they sent 
to England. To pay the difference, their gold and silver 
were remittted to London, and they were left witiiout a 
currency. To supply this deficiency, paper money, in 
the form of bank notes, bills of credit, and other well 
devised securities, had been issued from time to time in 
many of the provinces. This paper money system com- 
menced in Massachusetts in the year 1694, and soon at- 
tracted the attention of the English government. Royal 
proclamations attempted to fix the value of gold and sil- 
ver in America, but failed in the attempt, and when 
the system of paper money had been adopted by all the 
colonies except Virginia, royal proclamations endeavoured 
also to fix its value. In each case there was an attempt 
to make the precious metals more valuable in England 
than in America. The provinces were, in consequence 
of these influences, afTlicted with a debased and fluctua- 
ting currency ; and the attempt to determine its value 
by regulations in Britain, increased the difhcully. When 
they became involved in the seven years' war against 
the French, they raised funds by issues of paper-money ; 
but hardly had that war ended, when an act of parliament 
declared this very same paper to be no longer a legal 
tender in payment of debts. This act, made at the close 
of a war which had borne heavily on several of the colo- 
nies, was received with much displeasure. Men in the 
provinces began to ask where this parliamentary legis- 
lation was to end ? Virginia, always declining the bless- 
ings to be derived from issuing paper money, had made 



CAUSES OF THE KEVOLUTION. 201 

tobacco a currency. Wilhiii her borders, lands were sold 
for tobacco — horses were bou^lit I'or tobacco — tlie bride 
paid lor her ornaments in tobacco — and the lawyers and 
judges received llieir lees and peniuisites in tobacco. 
Would the British parliament also regulate this currency ? 
Men began to ask such questions. Men wished to know 
where the British legislation for America would end. 
They wished to know why it ever began. 

Another of these minor grievances was the exportation 
of criminals from Great liritain to the colonies. The 
pradice of transporting her convicts and " hard cases" to 
the plantations had been early commenced by England, 
and excited much righteous indignation in a country 
which did not desire to be made the Botany liay, the re- 
ceptacle, the prison-house of the felons and vagrants who 
were unfit for society. The Americans could not un- 
derstand M'hy they, being English subjects, should be 
exposed in their proj)erly, persons, and families, to rob- 
bers, thieves, and other transgressors. But their remon- 
strances were unavailing, and convicts were every year 
imported from England, and let loose to \m'y u|)on the 
colonies. 'J'he practice was persevered in I'oi' half a 
century, and only ceased at the Revolution. 

Other grievances co-operated with those now men- 
tioned, and aided in ri|iening them gradually for a revolt. 
Their chartered liberties were threatened ; and when the 
bold conduct of Massachusetts drew the indignation of 
the British government upon that province, an act of 
parliament was passed to deprive it of its charter, ;uid 
vest its government entirely in officers of royal appoint- 
ment. Similar attempts had been made at dillt'rent 
times in several of the other colonies. Hence, they one 
and all, with great reason, complained that the king, in 
conjunction with others, had committed grievous inju- 



202 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ries " in tiiking away our -charters, abolishing our laws, 
and altering fundamentally our forms of government." 
The Declaration of Independence enumerates these grie- 
vances in brief and energetic language, and is an admi- 
rable synopsis of the opinions and resolutions which 
were in those days discussed all over an angry and re- 
hcllious country. 

We have now detailed what, in our view, were the 
leading causes of the American Revolution ; and in this 
detail your attention has been drawn to events and cir- 
cumstances and inlluences which were at work, not for a 
day, but for a century. It is in such remote and con- 
tinued agencies acting from afar, that the plans and su- 
perintendence of Providence are rendered more lumi- 
nously manifest. The wave that pushes its fellow-wave 
upon the beach is not the only cause of the ebb and flow 
of the ocean. To find the true motive power which 
brings the tides in their semi-diurnal visit to the shore, 
we must look away from the earth — we must penetrate 
into the heavens, where the moon and the sun in their 
daily circuits send forth in quietness the mighty energy 
which drags vast oceans from their repose. After a 
manner in some respects similar, the changes which 
occur in the condition of the world or of nations, are 
generally the result of causes which have been in ope- 
ration through a long tract of time. The illegal im- 
position of ship-money roused the patriotic Hampden, 
precipitated England into a civil war, cost Charles I. 
his head, and raised Cromwell to power. The true 
causes, however, of that revolution lay far back of 
Hampden's eloquence and imprisonment, and exhibit 
themselves along a whole century of previous Eng- 
lish history. Cross from the British Channel to the 
Continent, and another grand example illustrative of the 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 203 

same truth is found. Difficulties in raising revenue 
compelled Louis XVI. to assemble the states-general ; 
and immediately France was plunged into the fire and 
fury of a strife which tore to pieces the political organi- 
zation of Continental Europe. But the causes of that 
uproar had been at work for more than a hundred years ; 
and through three generations of Frenchmen we can 
trace the agencies which brought about the French Re- 
volution. In like manner the American Revolution was 
an event, a result, a consummation, whose causes operated 
through a century of time. Taxation by the Jiritish 
parliament, like the ship-money of Hampden, or the 
financial embarrassments of Louis, served as an oppor- 
tunity or occasion for developing results which had 
been prepared from afar ; but the real causes of the 
American Revolution, the actual human agencies which 
produced that event, centred in the commercial system 
of Europe. To seize upon the commerce of the pro- 
vinces, to use them as the means of accumulating gold 
and silver in England, was the one idea which dictated 
a hundred years of English colonial policy. At the 
basis of this policy were the several interests — the Eng- 
lish merchants, manufacturers, ship-owners, and land- 
holders, who, through the king and parliament, made 
laws for the oppressive restriction of the poor outcnsls in 
the woods of America. I say that it was through the in- 
fluence of these interests that the colonial liberties were 
often subjected to violence ; for commercial gain was 
the benefit, and almost the exclusive benefit that Eng- 
land did derive or could derive from our country. To 
secure this benefit the privileges of thousands of freemen 
guarantied by charters and other means, were sought 
to be annulled whenever they came in collision with 
English interest. 



204 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Thus was commerce perverted to the purpose of grie- 
vous oppression ; and the commercial system of England, 
by manifesting itself in various restrictions — in the slave- 
trade — in the aggressions upon the colonial commerce 
of Spain, and in divers other forms, became the promi- 
nent and central cause of the American Revolution. In 
a preliminary lecture we represented commerce to be 
one of the agencies through which the civilization of the 
European race was effected. The winds and the ocean 
have been subservient to the cultivation, the refinement, 
and the intellectual developement of mankind. But the 
winds and the ocean which w^afted in Englisli ships, ne- 
groes to America, and American commerce to London, 
were ministering elements in the partial dissolution 
of the British Empire. Commerce here, though it was 
a perverted commerce, nevertheless was promotive of 
the cause of civilization, for it became the moving power 
in our liberation from Great Britain. The very cultiva- 
tion, too, which had been aided by commerce, became 
conducive to the same result. For, during the century 
previous to the Declaration of Independence, Mind had 
made a great advance — the broad field of human cultiva- 
tion grew riper — philosophy renewed its youth, and 
mounted up with eagles' wings — political science became 
better understood — Newton in the heavens, Burke in 
the parliament, and Franklin in the thunder-cloud, were 
signs and symbols shadowing forth the march of hu- 
manity, and pointing out the road the European race 
was travelling. In the North American provinces, the 
race was travelling to national independence. This goal 
they reached, by the year 1775, when from the hill tops, 
the mountain slopes, and the valleys, the gathering thou 
sands gave signs that the hour of political redemptioa 
was at hand. 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 205 

And now that we have detailed the causes of the Re- 
volution, permit us to ask, were they not prospective 
contrivances, agencies, means, adaptations, expedients 
■ — all pointing forward to the liberation of the colonies, 
and to the establishment of a government W'hose ruling 
power should be the popular will ? That these causes pro- 
duced these results, we know ; and that they were designed 
in the counsels of Divine wisdom to produce them, we 
must believe. This liberation and democratic organiza- 
tion were, however, effected through the frost, the fires, 
the heroism, and the wisdom of the Revolution. To 
that event I will direct your attention in the next 
lecture. 



LECTURE VII. 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

Military and political parts of the Revolution — Adverse circiunstancea 
attending the military part : I. Want of money ; II. Want of a weM 
organized army; III. Want of a general government ; IV. Exposed 
position of the country ; V. Border warfare of the Indians ; VI. To- 
ries — Favourable circumstances attending the military part of the 
Revolution : I. Character of the people ; II. Wisdom and energy of 
Congress ; III. Fortunate selection of military men ; IV. Alliances 
with foreign nations ; V. Friends in England — Successful conclusion 
of the military part — The political part of the Revolution — No union 
among the colonies — Attempts to organize a government — I. The 
Confederation : Its characterizing features ; (.1) Legislation for states ; 
(2) No sanction to its laws : Its practical operation : Causes of its 
failure — II. The Constitution : Circumstances of its origin ; Its pe- 
culiar nature arising from a compromise of views and interests ; Its 
characterizing features ; (1) Legislation for individuals, not states ; (2) 
Power to compel obedience to its laws ; (3) Distribution of execu- 
tive, legislative, and judicial power — The adoption of the constitu- 
tion completed the Revolution — Nature of the results obtained by 
the Revolution — Legitimacy and Democracy — The Revolution the 
termination of a series of agencies to establish popular government. 

We have examined the causes of the Revolution, 
and found them to centre in the mercantile system — a 
system which, in its application to the American planta- 
tions, was the great trunk, the mighty stem from which 
grew the branches, leaves, and twigs, of colonial op- 
pression. Let us now pass to the Revolution itself, and 
examine its difficulties, its progress, and its completion. 
By observing the general course of its events, we will 
perceive in them a continuation of the same system of 
agencies, and the same series of prospective contrivances, 



THE REVOLUTION. 207 

which characterized the previous movements of colonial 
history. 

The object and success of the Revolution you know. 
Its work was to dissolve the connexion between Great 
Britain and the thirteen colonies, and erect them into a 
separate nation. It began in A. D. 1774, when the 
Continental Congress assembled to consult upon colonial 
grievances, and it ended in A. D. 1789, when the present 
constitution of the United States was " ordained and es- 
tablished." Of these fifteen years, seven or eight were 
spent in the frost and fire of the war, and the remainder 
in experimenting upon the plan of union, and in groaning 
under the anarchy of the first confederatron. The revo- 
lution had, in this view, a military, and a political part; 
the first contains the uproar of the field, the second the 
organization of the government. I wish to draw your 
attention to some general facts and circumstances, both 
in the military and political parts of this work ; for by 
viewing the Revolution on the battle-field, and in the 
council-chamber, we will be able to put a proper value 
upon its heroism, and its wisdom. By looking at it in 
the connexion of all its parts, by attending to its diffi- 
culties and its success, we can rightly appreciate the 
whole work. Let us, therefore, review the general and 
characterizing circumstances of the Revolution, first in 
its military, and then in its political part. 

In the military part of the Revolution we have the 
battles, the victories, the defeats, and the jubilations of 
success. By the close of the year 1774, it was apparent 
that the colonies had ceased to petition the crown for a 
redress of grievances. The arguing was ended ; the pa- 
tience of the colonists was exhausted ; armies began to 
assemble ; and the bayonet and rifle were introduced to 
settle the dispute. That we may rightly understand the 



208 



ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



course of the warfare, let us examine first the adverse 
circumstances, and next the favourable circumstances in 
which the military part of the Revolution was maintained. 

What were the adverse circumstances, the difficulties, 
the unfavourable elements through which the colonies 
waged eight years' warfare ? 

I. The first adverse circumstance which I shall men- 
tion is to be found in the fact that the colonies in their 
united capacity had no money, no public property, no 
general treasury, and not much credit. They had en- 
gaged in the war partly on account of taxation, and were 
not very willing to impose heavy taxes upon themselves. 
Nor was the nature of their union very well adapted to 
remove the difficulties arising from this moneyless con- 
dition. Their union was a spontaneous movement ; like 
the offerings of the ancient Israelites, it was of their own 
free will. Danger from without pressed upon them ; 
and to avert it and maintain their liberties, they made 
common cause. But thirteen independent states, though 
engaged in a deadly struggle against a common foe, are 
not often disposed to give liberal contributions to the 
common purse ; at least the thirteen colonies found it 
exceedingly difficult and even impossible to maintain a 
common treasury. The Declaration of Independence 
announced the common determination to engage in the 
war ; but where was the money to be obtained which 
would fight the battles of the Revolution ? Men may 
engage with ardour in a great national struggle, where the 
danger is pressing, and the excitement high. When 
Napoleon conducted his armies to Russia, a whole na- 
tion rose up against him ; and the deserts sent forth their 
wild children to fight the invader. But eight years' 
warfare, such as our Revolution, required soldiers to be 
procured, trained and paid, officered and clothed. To 



THE REVOLUTION. 209 



do this required money ; but the Continental Congress, 
the organ of the thirteen colonies, had no money. Their 
resources were to be obtained by calling upon the seve- 
ral states to contribute provisions, clothing, the munitions 
of war, and soldiers. These contributions often came 
late, and often they did not come at all. General Ma- 
rion living on. potatoes, fighting without pay, providing 
his own ammunition, and acting the hero at his own ex- 
pense, is a fair representation of the moneyless warfare 
of the Revolution. 

Great was the embarrassment of this poverty — and 
it was the more distressing, when contrasted with the 
resources of the nation against which the colonists were 
contending. Was Great Britain an old and doddered 
empire, tottering to her fall? Precisely the contraiy. 
She had the longest purse in Europe. Like Moses, her 
natural energy was not abated. She was feeding on the 
rice, and adorning herself with the jewels of India. She 
was clothing herself with furs from the hyperborean re- 
gions of North America, and jingling the guineas gotten 
by selling Guinea negroes into bondage. And, besides, 
what was her position among the nations of Europe .'' 
France had been worsted in the seven years' war, which 
closed in 1763. She lost her colonial possessions in 
America, and was stript of much that she owned in other 
regions of the world. Holland, absorbed in the pursuits 
of commerce, was giving her attention to cheese, to spices, 
and to tea. Spain, despoiled of her European provinces, 
but still retaining her vast American possessions, was 
tottering and tumbling from her ancient glory ; her head 
was too weak for her members ; her central pulsations 
did not drive the vital fluid to her colonial extremities. 
Great Britain was, therefore, the ascendant nation, the 
ruling power of Europe. 



s* 



210 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

With such a nation, holding such a purse, and having 
such neighbours, the thirteen colonies, without money, 
and without public property, joined in the strife of the 
Revolution. 

11. Another unfavourable circumstance in the mili- 
tary part of the Revolution, is to be found in the want 
of a well organized colonial army. This difficulty arose 
from that moneyless condition of the colonies which we 
have just noticed. When the Revolution commenced, 
soldiers were enlisted for a year; and when the year ended 
the army was in reality dissolved, and a new one was to 
be formed. The soldiers had, for the most part, been 
drawn from their domestic occupations, and when arms 
were placed in their hands, they had acted bravely ; 
but when their time of service expired they claimed 
their discharge, and new soldiers could be procured only 
through great difficulty. Money — the sinews of war — 
was wanting, and that was the cause of many other 
wants. If Congress issued paper money, it depreciated. 
If they tried to borrow, they were refused. If they 
called upon the states to contribute, the states were slow 
in their movements. And, though the continental 
money, issued by Congress, was of great and essential 
service, in rallying the strength of the country in the 
cause of the Revolution, yet the want of a national trea- 
sury kept the army in a state of imperfect organization. 
Hence, during the whole period of the war, the painful 
and most embarrassing part of the struggle was to main- 
tain the appearance of an army. It underwent an annual 
reconstruction, and consequently required an annual re- 
drilling. Congress might vote pay, clothing, bounties, 
and battalions ; but General Washington was usually in 
the field with unpaid, ill-clothed, discontented skeletons 
of regiments. With such materials he was required to 



THE REVOLUTION. 211 

oppose a well officered, well organized, and well paid 
British array. He constantly, through the whole con- 
test, urged Congress, by every consideration of policy, 
justice, and patriotism, to provide the means for paying 
the officers, and establishing a permanent army. But, 
though Congress acted from motives of the purest patri- 
otism, it lacked the means to comply with his urgent 
entreaties ; and the war was waged with such troops as 
could be obtained for a campaign. Animated by devo- 
tion to the cause of liberty, many citizens through the 
colonies hastened to the revolutionary camp, and when 
a short term of service v/as expired, they hastened home 
again to supply the pressing wants of their families. 

Considered in a mere military point of view, the em- 
barrassments and dangers arising from this unceasing 
fluctuation of the army, were of the most serious cha- 
racter. The moral grandeur of General Washington is 
nowhere more luminously exhibited, than in his unremit- 
ting effiarts to keep together the unpaid and ill-furnished 
troops of the Revolution. The same benign Providence, 
however, which preserved the colonies in their infancy, 
now prepared a man of wisdom to preserve their armies 
in the poverty of their manhood. To estimate his merits 
and worth, we must view him at the head of a continu- 
ally dissolving and unpaid army. 

III. Another adverse circumstance in the military 
part of the Revolution, is to be found in the want of a 
well organized general government. When the thirteen 
colonies determined to dissolve their connexion with 
Great Britain, there was no political union among them. 
According to the generally received theory, each was an 
appendage to the British crown, or rather an independent 
province of the British Empire, and owed allegiance to 
the king as their paramount lord. In the days of their 



212 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

infancy there had not been much communication between 
them ; but, as they grew up and acquired strength, they 
became acquainted with each other's wishes, and there 
sprang up between them a union of sympathy. But yet 
there was no political union among them ; each colony 
was disconnected with the others, except in so far as 
they were united by being bound in allegiance to the 
same sovereign. When the oppression of Great Britain 
roused them to assert their independence, their first 
measure was to unite and form one common power, and 
under the force of this union to make common cause 
against the enemy. This was an obvious suggestion of 
reason and policy ; and the several colonies accordingly 
appointed delegates to a general congress. By this 
movement they organized a revolutionary union, of 
which Congress became the organ, and pulsating centre. 
That body assembled in A. D. 1774, became the deposi- 
tory of colonial power, undertook the management of 
the Revolution, and through trials and tribulations 
guided the American people during the whirlwind, storm, 
and starvation, of eight years' warfare. By this process 
there was formed a union in fact among the three mil- 
lions of inhabitants, who were scattered over the hills 
and valleys, and along the rivers and bays, from Massa- 
chusetts to Georgia. This was a voluntary — a sponta- 
neous union ; and Congress, being the body through 
which it put forth its power, and being, also, a body 
which acted without law or written constitution, had 
authority to provide for the general interests just so long 
as the people approved of its acts. 

And yet there was a great feebleness and languid de- 
bility in this revolutionary government. The mode of 
its organization, and the limited nature of its authority, 
often rendered its acts useless. Congress might vote, 



THE REVOLUTION. 213 

and often did vote, to raise a revenue, organize an army, 
and furnish the munitions of war. But how were these 
resohitions to be carried into effect? By Congress? 
Not at all ? The states were the purse-holders, and each 
state contributed or refused, according to its own par- 
ticular views of the general warfare. If the acts of Con- 
gress coincided with the wishes of a state — the state 
obeyed. If not — not. Sometimes, also, the legislation 
of a state conflicted with the legislation of Congress. 
Whenever this occurred, the state legislation prevailed ; 
for Congress was the creature of the states, and without 
their continued assent could effect nothing. Congress 
was, it is true, the central power of the Revolution ; but 
still it was a weak power. It might plan, counsel, de- 
bate, vote, make paper money, appoint officers, and 
direct campaigns ; but the w^hole machinery was still 
useless, unless the states came up to the work. Such 
jarring, such feebleness, such dependence upon thirteen 
different heads, w^as a most serious evil. A well orga- 
nized general government, with power to execute what 
it decreed, would have infused vastly more energy into 
the military part of the Revolution. The feebleness of 
the central government compelled General Washington 
to have frequent, and even unceasing recourse to the 
several states ; and his military operations were con- 
stantly embarrassed by the discordant views of thirteen 
state legislatures. The central government had not 
power or means even to supply provisions for the army ; 
and Washington and his officers were frequently com- 
pelled to levy military contributions from the inhabitants, 
to preserve the soldiers from starvation. 

IV. Another adverse circvimstance in the militaiy 
part of the Revolution, is to be found in the great extent 
of our country exposed to invasion from the sea-coast. 



214 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Navigable rivers opened highways for British armies into 
the heart of the country. The St. Lawrence, the Hud- 
son, the Delaware, the Chesapeake, the Potomac, the 
James River, and others, invited British ships to enter, 
and enabled British forces to intersect the country. 
Hence, the usual policy of the British commanders was 
to carry their troops from one point to another by sea. 
The colonies having no naval power, were unable to 
prevent the transportation of British soldiers from New 
York to Charleston, or Norfolk, or wherever else the 
plan of a campaign on the sea-coast required. As an 
example of the exposed condition of the country from 
its navigable rivers and exposed sea-coast, it may be 
sufficient to mention the well known operations along 
the Hudson. The British being in possession of the 
city of New York, had, by the Hudson river, a channel 
of communication deep into the country. This tempted 
them to the project of sending an army from Canada, by 
way of Lake Champlain, to co-operate with another, from 
New York, by way of the Hudson. This project was 
the same as that undertaken in the war of 1812, and the 
design, in each case, was to separate New England from 
the other states, and, by destroying the communication 
between the northern and middle provinces, conquer 
each in detail. But the attempt was, in both cases, a 
failure. Burgoyne advancing from the north, found 
willows, instead of laurels, at Saratoga ; and the plan 
was abandoned. Similar projects, though of less magni- 
tude, were, on account of the intersected nature of the 
country, attempted at other points along the Atlantic 
coast. 

V. Another adverse circumstance in the military part 
of the Revolution, is to be found in the border warfare 
of the Indians. When the English colonies began to 



THE REVOLUTION. 215 

establish themselves along the Atlantic, the great Indian 
power of North America, was the Iroquois, or Six Na- 
tions, whose head-quarters were immediately south of 
Lake Ontario. From that central region they extended 
their authority towards the east, and south, and south- 
west ; and held in a state of vassalage nearly all the 
tribes along the Atlantic, from the St. LawTence to Flo- 
rida. Another branch of their dominions, with its subject 
chiefs, lay on the western side of the Alleghanies, and 
reached for more than a thousand miles along the Ohio 
and Mississippi. Over this immense region, the Six Na- 
tions, from their great council at Onondago, extended 
their authority, and held in subjection numerous petty 
tribes. During all the earlier colonial operations in 
North America, they were friends of the English, and 
implacably hostile to the French. In the seven years' 
war, however, the French gained their alliance and aid ; 
but when that war had annihilated the French power in 
America, the Six Nations returned to their first love, and 
again became the friends and allies of the English. At 
the breaking out of the Revolution, these powerful sa- 
vages became the objects of intense interest to both the 
contending parties — Great Britain attempting to purchase 
their aid, and the colonies their neutrality. In this race 
for the good will of the Indians, the colonies failed, 
because they had not the means to furnish them with 
such presents as were offered by the British. This ina- 
bility was the more deplorable, because the influence of 
the Six Nations was sufficient to bring against the colonies 
all the Indians on the north and west. This in fact oc- 
curred. From the Mohawk river, round by the lakes, 
and far down the Ohio, bold Indians became the allies 
of the British sovereign ; and the tomahawk of the child 
of the wilderness was wielded to desolate the towns, the 



216 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

fruitful fields, and the retired home of the American citi- 
zen. Fierce savages began to yell along the western 
slope of the Alleghany Mountains, and threatened to de- 
solate the western settlements of Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania, and, indeed, to destroy every vestige of colonial 
power in the west. Congress tried treaties with them, 
and was disappointed. They were corrupted into deadly 
foes, and threatened serious consequences to the cause 
of independence. Their irruption into the valley of 
Wyoming, and destruction of that district, caused Con- 
gress to undertake measures for their reduction. An 
expedition planned against their head-quarters, on the 
north and west of New York, was successfully executed 
by General Sullivan. A similar expedition against them 
in the west, on the Wabash and Illinois, was executed 
by tlie enterprising Clarke, and its success broke the 
plans and power of the Indians, and saved the western 
regions of the states. But this border warfare of the 
Revolution contains the most thrilling incidents of that 
excited period. Its origin may be readily traced to the 
moneyless condition of the colonies at the beginning of 
the war, and it was a great embarrassment to the Revo- 
lution. 

VI. Another adverse circumstance in the Revolution, 
is to be found in the divisions which existed anions: the 
colonists. I refer to the Tories. The inhabitants of the 
colonies had suffered much from Great Britain ; but they 
were by no means united in their opposition, when that 
opposition eventuated in open war. Many still cast their 
eyes to Britain as the land of their birth, and in tlieir far 
away homes in the New World, cherished a fond re- 
membrance of those dear old times when they were so 
unhappy. Others who had entertained shadowy, unde- 
fined notions of the sacredness of royal power, were 



THE REVOLUTION. 217 

timid, and recoiled from any participation in the con- 
test. Others again passed from one side to another, 
being one day Britons and the next Americans ; veering- 
round according to their visions of success, or prospects 
of gain. Hence tories, cow-boys, and other useless and 
injurious descriptions of persons, were found throughout 
the country. Many believed, and many pretended to 
believe, that their oath of allegiance prevented them from 
taking up arms against their lawful sovereign. These 
adherents to the royal cause were a serious hindrance 
to the movements of the revolutionary machinery. 

Such were the adverse circumstances through which 
the war of the Revolution was waged. The want of 
money, or rather the want of a national treasury and na- 
tional property, was at the foundation of all the difficul- 
ties. For, if Congress had possessed the means of pay- 
ment, the organization of an army could readily have 
been maintained, the neutrality of the Indians purchased, 
the tories converted to republicans, the main passes from 
the sea-board to the interior defended ; and the power 
of Congress, though in other respects weak, would have 
been adequate to the necessities of the Revolution. But 
in the actual condition of aflairs, patriotism and conti- 
nental money were the main resources of the revolution- 
ary government. To appreciate the exertions of the 
revolutionary fathers, their means of warfare must not 
be forgotten. 

Providence, however, in his benign dispensations, 
sends the sweet whh the bitter. The cloud by day, the 
pillar of fire by night, and the stream of water, followed 
the families of Israel in all their journeys through the 
great and terrible wilderness. Hope led the wanderers on- 
ward. The same bountiful Providence prepared favoura- 
ble elements for the Revolution ; and, in the darkest hour, 

T 



218 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

hope loomed through the clouds of adversity. A little 
stream of heavenly bounty ran along the whole path- 
way of revolutionary events, and favourable circumstances 
compensated for the evils which we have just enume- 
rated. What were these favourable circumstances? 

I. The first is to be found in the ardour and character 
of the good people of the colonies. Virtue and intelli- 
gence, the essential elements of every republican people, 
were extensively diffused through the colonial masses. 
The earlier emigrants were, for the most part, men of stern, 
upright integrity ; and in their faitli and practice were, in a 
peculiar and emphatic sense, a religious people. Their 
descendants, and those who followed them across the 
Atlantic prior to the Revolution, were, in general, men 
of like passions and hopes with themselves. Basing their 
political upon their religious creed, they infused into 
both that liberal spirit, whose manifestations it had been 
their delight to trace in Divine revelation. Their learn- 
ing, their political notions, and their faith, were all of 
the same tincture, and all derived their hue from the 
same Divine illumination. 

In the north. New England had her schools, and col- 
leges, and churches ; and divine and political truth was 
there widely diffused. The rainbow of heavenly hope 
curled its graceful arch above the moral horizon. Such 
light and faith soon produced, in the northern colonies, 
a popular character, whose most distinctive features 
were a determination calm and unchangeable, an energy 
deep, quiet, and irresistible, and a conduct guided by 
intelligent views of justice, religion, and liberty. This 
character was matured by the time the colonies w^ere 
ready to assert their independence ; and New England 
entered into the contest with patriotic devotion. Mas- 
sachusetts became the focus of resistance to English im- 



THE REVOLUTION. 219 

positions ; and, when the Revolution commenced, that 
colony, true to its character, put all its energy into the 
cause, and maintained its integrity through the storm 
and fire of tlie contest. 

A similar devotedness to the Revolution was found 
in other colonies. Virginia entered into the struggle 
with heart and soul, and purse and muscle. Boston, 
Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston, were succes- 
sively in the possession of the British ; but the capture 
of towns was not to decide the war. The force of the 
Revolution lay in the country, and received its aid from 
the devotion of the populace. The commercial cities 
had done much to begin the open resistance ; but Vir- 
ginia had no commercial cities, and yet that colony was 
first and last in the battle. The whole country was 
moved in its deepest recesses ; and from the log cabins 
of the back-woods, from the swamps of the south, and 
from the hills of the north, there was an ardour, a devo- 
tion, and a determination, among the popular masses, 
which administered greatly to the Revolution. Even the 
soldiers forgot their sufl'erings in their devotion to the 
cause, and every roar of the hostile cannon infused new 
energy into the suffering colonists. 

This ardour and self-sacrificing disposition was in 
harmony with the character of the people. They were 
intelligent in political matters, and knew the rights of 
freemen. They had resisted oppression ; and now, when 
called upon, they endured sacrifices rather than abandon 
their liberties. They saw, in subjection to Britain, a 
return to Egypt ; and they had eaten enough of the bitter 
bread of bondage. They hoped to free themselves from 
a power which had never sympathized with them, and 
now desired to tyrannize over them ; and they trusted 
that a benign Providence would not disappoint their 



220 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

hope. Enlightened by this knowledge, and animated 
by this hope, this faith, and this patriotism, they spread 
the eagle of liberty on Bunker Hill, and hailed not in 
their march till they played Yankee Doodle on the heights 
of Yorktown. 

II. Another favourable circumstance in the Revolu- 
tion, is to be found in the wisdom of Congress. We 
have already represented that body as the organ of the 
thirteen colonies, and the central power that undertook 
the management of the Revolution. The energy and 
wisdom of (he men who composed it, have often been 
the subject of deserved praise. They had not only to 
provide (he material of an army, but also to exercise the 
more difficult task of encouraging the states to support 
the Revolution. The appointment of officers, the pro- 
visions and pay of the soldiers, and the entire machinery 
of the Revolution, in its internal affiiirs, was under their 
guardianship. The external i)art of the Revolution, the 
interest of foreign nations in the matter, the procuration 
of allies from abroad, all this, also, devolved upon Con- 
gress ; and that body managed all these difficult matters 
with wisdom, moderation, and energy. In the darkest 
hour of revolutionary adversity, those patriots remembered 
their duty. Chased from Philadelphia, they assembled 
at Raltimore ; and, when driven from that city, they as- 
sembled at Lancaster. They provided as best they 
could for officers and soldiers ; and, like watchmen on 
tlie walls of their besieged country, they gave warning 
of threatened dangers, and pointed out the means of 
avoiding impending calamities. In illustration of their 
energy and wisdom, fix your mind upon the condition 
of the country, when the fust retreat across New Jersey 
placed Washington and his array on the west side of the 
DekiNvare. Philadelphia was threatened — the army was 



THE REVOLUTION. 221 

melting away — the soldiers were murmuring — the offi- 
cers were dissatisfied — the country on the north was de- 
solated — and the British forces seemed everywhere 
triumphant. Through all this uproar of the elements, 
Congress acted with energy, with wisdom, and with a 
calm dignity and determination, which breathed renewed 
life into frightened, drooping Freedom. 

III. Another favourable circumstance in the Revolu- 
tion, is to be found in the happy selection of men to 
whom the conduct of the military affairs was committed. 
During the forty years preceding the Declaration of In- 
dependence, Europe had been embroiled in wars, long, 
fierce, and bloody. But the North American colonies 
were strangers to the military science which had been 
employed in those contests ; and, when the Revolution 
commenced, there were few men in the country who 
w^re practically acquainted with the military tactics that 
had been employed in the armies in Europe. The co- 
lonists had acquired some knowledge of the military art 
in the seven years' war ; but the officers of the Revolu- 
tion, in the commencement of the contest, had recourse 
to the directions of good native sense, rather than to the 
matured rules of the military science. Europe, how- 
ever, sent her officers to aid in the cause of freedom. 
From Poland came Pulaski and Kosciusko, and contri- 
buted their intelligence and their military skill ; from 
Germany came De Kalb and Steuben, and aided to or- 
ganize our armies and fight our battles ; France sent 
Rochambeau and La Fayette. But though these and 
other foreign officers contributed military science and 
valour, yet in the Revolution, as in all other contests for 
liberty, it was known and felt in America that 

" In native awords, and native ranks, 
^ The only hope of courage dwells." 



222 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The eulogiiim of Washington need not now be written. 
His duties as commander-in-chief, though most arduous, 
were performed with a wisdom and decision suited 
to their importance. The Revolution needed such a 
man ; for his integrity, patriotism, and sound judgment, 
both in the field and in the council, rendered him the 
man capable of defending the country, so far as that 
defence depended upon a single individual. He lives 
in the hearts of his countrymen — a whole nation is his 
monument. 

An:iong his associates in the conduct of military 
affairs, were Greene, and Lee, and Morgan, and Sullivan, 
and Wayne, and others, whose energy and love of 
country infused vigour into the revolutionary armies. 
And among the many men on whom the conduct of the 
war devolved, there was a singular combination of the 
qualities needed in such a crisis. All were devoted to 
the Revolution — Arnold excepted, and Conway not 
counted. 

IV. Another favourable circumstance in the Revolu- 
tion, is to be found in the alliances which the colonies 
formed with the nations on the continent of Europe. 
The years 1776 and 1777 were the wintry, stormy days 
of the Revolution ; but when darkness which might be 
felt had brooded for a time over the land, the star of 
a better hope dawned in the east. The aid of France 
had been invoked by the colonies at the commencement 
of the contest ; but that power being at peace with Great 
Britain, was not disposed, immediately, to break up the 
amicable relations of the two nations. In consequence 
of this wish on the part of France, the colonies obtained 
no public aid from her, until the surrender of Burgoyne 
changed the tide of American disasters. But though 
she gave them no direct and open assistance, she assured 



THE REVOLUTION. 223 

them of her good will, and permitted her citizens to ex- 
tend their private aid to them. It was manifest, how- 
ever, that the remembrance of her former losses in Ame- 
rica would lead her to take part with them, so soon as a 
convenient opportunity should arrive. We have already 
stated that the colonial and commercial rivalry of France 
and England precipitated them into a war, which ended 
in depriving France of Canada, and of all her possessions 
in North America, east of the Mississippi. These events 
disposed her to join her lilies to our stars ; for, having 
been stripped by Great Britain of her colonial possessions, 
she was well pleased when the Declaration of Independ- 
ence announced the resolution of the thirteen colonies 
to dissolve their connexion with the parent country. 
Their success would deprive Britain of her colonial as- 
cendency, and restore the equilibrium of the two nations 
in the New World. To accomplish this, to sever the 
cord which bound the American colonies to Great Bri- 
tain, was, therefore, an jiU-powerful motive with France. 
Her pride, her interest, and her national revenge, were 
alike enlisted to bring about such a result. Accordingly, 
when the intelligence reached her that Burgoyne had 
surrendered, and that the Revolution would probably 
succeed, she recognised the independence of the colo- 
nies, and concluded a treaty with them. This, as was 
foreseen, produc(;d immediately a declaration of war 
against her, by Great Britain ; and, as a consequence, 
French ships, soldiers, and officers, came to help the 
colonies. This was a great gain to the cause of the Re- 
volution — But other allies were soon added. 

Instigated by France, and desirous of revenging 
former injuries, Spain also declared war against Great 
Britain, and joined in the strife. She was ambitious of 
repossessing herself of the Rock of Gibraltar, where the 



224 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

British flag then waved ; and the war in which England 
was now engaged, presented a favourable opportunity 
for asserting her rights to her former territory. 

But still another ally was added. The colonial 
envoy, Mr. Laurens, having been captured by an Eng- 
lish ship, papers were found with him, which intimated 
tliat Holland, old liberty-loving, cheese-making Holland, 
was friendly to the cause of American Independence. 
The proof was conclusive, the sin unpardonable ; and 
Great Britain forthwith declared war against Holland. 
She thus voluntarily added the aristocratic republic of 
the north to her already numerous enemies, and re- 
solved to fight all Western Europe, and her American 
colonies besides. This conduct was pretty tolerably 
bold, and required success to characterize it as wise. 

Thus the theatre of the strife was enlarged ; and 
France, Spain, Holland, and the American colonies, 
were engaged against Great Britain. In this array of 
the hostile parties, battles were fought in Europe, on the 
Atlantic, in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean, and 
through the American colonies. The armies and fleets 
of so many powers gave full employment to all the 
forces of Great Britain ; and, from the year 1777, the 
subjection of the colonies was a very remote possibility. 
Great Britain alone, with a long purse, filled with 
wealth, from Hindostan and the West Indies, would 
have proved a vigorous and formidable foe. But when 
France, Si)ain, and Holland, were thrown into the scale 
with the thirteen colonies, the contest was changed, and 
the success of the Revolution rendered exceedingly pro- 
bable. 

This combination of European enemies against Great 
Britain, in her wai'with the colonies, was a result which 
the events of a century had prepared. The colonial 



THE REVOLUTION. 



225 



rights and territories of all those powers had been in- 
vaded by England, who had driven France from the St. 
Lawreni-e, Holland from the Hudson, and made mnne- 
rous aggressions upon the colonial conunerce of Spain. 
It was, therefore, in accordance with the usual course of 
human events, that diese nations, who had all suffered in 
the same manner from a common foe, shovdd be found 
combined in a contest, whose design was to do for Britain 
what she had done for her neighbours. Such a combi- 
nation in fact occurred ; and American independence 
was aided by passions and events which made three 
powerful nations tlie allies of the rebels. Thus did 
tlie invasions of the colonial system of Europe, which 
were commenced by England against other nations, 
finally bring a concentration of forces to deprive her of 
her own colonial possessions, and procure for the Revo- 
lution, friends and allies in Europe. 

V. Another favourable circumstance in the Revolu- 
tion, is to be found in the strong party in liritain who 
were friendly to the colonists. Through the war it was 
not forgotten in England, that the Americans had drawn 
their love of liberty, and tlie outlines of their political 
organization, from the British islands ; and the question 
was asked, where would liberty in Britain be, if tyranny 
was established in America ? A strong party, thert'fore, 
in England, became friendly to the cause of America; 
and their friendship was, perhaps, not abated by the fact, 
that they were, in general politics, opposed to another 
party at home — tlie tories. Many of the whigs in Eng- 
land represented the cause of the colonies as the cause 
of English liberty ; and in the early stages of the dispute, 
while it was yet all heart-break and no bloodshed, they 
besought tlieir government to grant the demands of the 
colonies for a redress of grieviuices. When indepcnd- 



226 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ence was declared, the whigs still asked the govern- 
ment to cease the strife, and make the best bargain pos- 
sible with the colonies. Fox, and Pitt, and Burke, 
and Barre, and Conway, have been identified with those 
who were friendly to America. To what extent their 
professed friendsliip was the result of the party warfare 
between the whigs and tories, it is unnecessary now to 
specify. All that it now concerns us to represent, is the 
fact, that the cause of America was warmly espoused 
by these and other leading men in Britain. I do not 
mean that they advocated the independence of tlie colo- 
nies ; they all stopped short of that result. Pitt would 
have hanged all the leading men in America, from Ge- 
neral Washington to the door-keeper of Congress, rather 
than dismember the British Empire by the independence 
of the colonies. But their opposition to the policy of their 
government in relation to American affairs, enfeebled the 
measures undertaken for the reduction of the colonies, 
and promoted the Revolution. Burke was the parlia- 
mentary orator in behalf of America ; but while his elo- 
quence flowed in a profuse stream, and his argument 
bore down all opposition, he, himself, retreated from the 
idea of American independence. The unity of the Bri- 
tish Empire was an elemental truth, which even political 
partyism in England held sacred, and which cut through 
and arrested the argument and oratory of the parliament- 
ary friends of America. But the Revolution was fa- 
voured by their early defence of its justice ; and when 
they abandoned it, and attempted to arrest its career, 
France, Spain, and Holland, came to its support. 

Thus were provided the favourable circumstances 
which aided in bringing the military part of the Revolu- 
tion to a successful termination. By the representation 
just presented, these favourable circumstances ai'e found 



THE REVOLUTION. 227 

in the character of the colonists — in the wisdom of Con- 
gress — in the fortunate selection of men to conduct the 
Revolution — in the alliances which the colonies formed 
with the nations of Europe, and in the opposition in 
England to the war. These were the main influences 
by which the Revolution was sustained. All things are 
set over one against another, says an old writer, when 
comparing the Divine government with the arrangements 
of external nature. Applying the idea to the events 
before us, we may say that the favourable influences of 
the Revolution were set over against the adverse influ- 
ences. The spirit of evil was vanquished, when fighting 
with the spirit of good for the dominion of the world ; 
so, at least, Persian theology represented the matter. 
In like manner, the good influences of the Revolution 
prevailed over the evil. But to the colonies it was a 
time of trial, of endurance, and of affl.iction — afltlictions 
to be compensated by blessings, extending, we trust, 
through generations to come. 

Were we to make a military map of the Revolution, 
we would readily perceive that its campaigns were dif- 
fused over the whole geographical extent of the country. 
Expeditions were undertaken against Canada on the 
north, and against the Indians on the northwest and 
west. Battles were fought in New England, along the 
Hudson, in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania, and in Mary- 
land. The Carolinas and Georgia were scenes of the 
most active hostilities. The James River was the chosen 
region of British aggression ; and Virginia, like New 
Jersey, suffered the evils of an active invading army. 
But through all the changing aspects of the contest, in 
the hours of sorest adversity, the revolutionary worthies 
still beheld the bow of promise. 

American Independence was, however, involved in 



228 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the contests which were raging in Europe. France was 
at war with Britain ; Spain, under French control, was 
waging desperate warfare for the Rock of Gibraltar ; and 
Holland was fighting for the West Indies. Peace between 
America and Britain depended upon peace between 
all these belligerents ; and when Britain, tired of the con- 
test, was disposed to recognise the independence of the 
thirteen colonies, there was danger that the conflicting 
interests of the European allies would prolong the strug- 
gle. But the failure of Spain in her terrible onslaught 
upon Gibraltar, the defeat at Yorktown, and the decided 
tone of the colonial Congress, at length disposed all par- 
ties for peace. The contest was changed from the field 
to the cabinet ; and under the direction and counsellinar 
of Franklin, and Adams, and Jay, and Laurens, peace 
was concluded, and independence acknowledged. 

These were the favourable and unfavourable influences 
through which the military part of the Revolution was con- 
ducted, and under which the cause of liberty triumphed. 
To the events connected with this trium})h, our republic 
looks back with gratitude ; and, like every other nation, 
clusters thousands of fond associations around the heroes 
and martial deeds which ushered in the morning of its 
birth-day. Bruce, and Wallace, and Bannockburn, are 
names whose very sound warms the heart's-blood of the 
Scot, and quickens into life and action all the energies 
of patriotism. Saratoga, Yorktown, and Washington, 
are names of similar power in our own history ; and a 
nation rises up to rejoice, when the cannon of the 
Fourth of July awakens the memory of revolutionary 
heroism. 

Having disposed of the military part of the Revolu- 
tion, we pass on to a consideration of the events which 
characterized the latter part of that period. Peace was 



THE REVOLUTION. 229 

announced and independence acknowledged by Britain 
in the year 1783. Six years later, in 1789, the present 
national constitution went into operation, our republic 
was established, the Revolution perfected, and the end 
of American colonization attained. The events of these 
six years belong to the Revolution, and form its organ- 
izing or political part. For, to what desirable end 
would all the heroism of the Revolution have conducted, 
if the country had remained split up into a number of 
little independent sovereignties ? Each would have in- 
terfered with its neighbour ; and, as it was in Europe in 
the times when every feudal baron was an independent 
chief, the general prosperity would have been sacrificed 
to local interests. Popular government in America re- 
quired the Revolution to bring about a different result. 
The end to which the general current of events in Ame- 
rican history had moved, required that democracy should 
be tried on a large scale. Accordingly, the Revolution 
closed in 1789 by the construction of the states into 
a single republican nation. Let us inquire a litde into 
the process by which this national organization was 
effected, and this inquiry will conduct us to a state- 
ment of the nature and peculiar features of our republic. 
Whoever desires to form an idea of our national or- 
ganization must keep steadily in mind the independent 
and disconnected origin of the thirteen colonies, or 
thirteen states as we may now call them. From the 
general course of observations already made, as well as 
from explicit statements, we have given considerable 
prominence to the fact, that the colonies, prior to the 
Revolution, had no direct political connexion with each 
other. There was no direct union between Virginia and 
Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts, or between any of the 
others. There was, however, an indirect political con- 
u 



230 



ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



nexion, in their common dependence upon the British 
crown. All the colonies owed allegiance to his majesty 
tlie king. Consequently, when at the Declaration of 
Independence the colonies each and all renounced this 
allegiance, and dissolved their connexion with their com- 
mon head, there was no longer any political union 
among them, either direct or indirect. There was a 
union of sympathy, it is true ; for they all derived their 
origin from the same parent country, spoke the same 
democratic language, had the same general system of 
laws, and had been subjected to the same oppressions. 
But there was no political union, no legal cord binding 
them together; each was independent of the rest. Du- 
ring the tires of the Revolution, necessity forced them 
together. They desired to esca{)e iiom the bondage of 
Great Britain ; and this common desire, as well as the 
power of the nation with which they had to contend, 
compelled them to make a common defence. There 
■was, therefore, in fact a union among them which was 
coeval with their independence, and had its origin in the 
very act that sei)arated them iiom Great Britain. But 
this union was voluntary in its origin and temporary in 
its nature : it w^as merely a league of states for securing 
an object of common interest, and a league which, from 
its very nature, would be dissolved when that object 
"was attained. In the process which changed this tem- 
porary union into a permanent government, is exhibited 
the great wisdom of the revolutionary patriots and 
statesmen. The names of Franklin, and Adams, and 
Hamiltcui, and Jellerson, aiul even of Washington, derive 
their brightest radiated circles of glory from the share 
which those men had in organizing and establishing our 
national government. There is no portion of our his- 
tory of more intense interest or of greater value than 



THE REVOLUTION. 231 

that which details tliis organiziuo- process ; a process 
■which began indeed with the Revohition, but which was 
not completed till the adoj)tion of the constitution in 
1789. Let us examine it brielly in its several stages. 

I. The lirst attempt to form a permanent union among 
the states, resultetl in that system of government de- 
signated by tlie name of the Confederation. When we 
say tJiat this was tlie first attempt to form a union of 
the states, we do not wish to cut out of our history the 
fact that there had been partial attempts at union 
among some of the colonies at a muih earlier day. 
One of these attempted unions was the league between 
the New England colonies, which Wiis formed almost 
coeval witli their settlement, and subsisted for nearly 
half a century. During tlie seven years' war, attempts 
were made to form a league amonji" the colonies for 
common defence against tlie French and Indians ; but 
the particular plan proposed was not received with 
favour. (Jreat Jhitain also grew alarmed at the power 
which such a conlederation would give, and it was 
abandoned. When tlie Revolution brought the colonies 
into an actual union, measures were immediately taken 
to render it permanent ; and, on the same day tliat Con- 
gress appointed a committee to draft the Declaration of 
Independence, another committee was ajipointed "to 
prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be 
entered into between the colonies." The daniiers of the 
Revolution, and the dilhculties of the country, prevented 
any immediate action in the matter ; and five years 
elapsed before any plan of union was adopted. In 
1781, however, tlie Confederation came into being. Let 
us examine a little into its nature. 

The prominent, leading cliaracterisfic of the Con- 
federation consisted in the fai't that it was a government 



232 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

for the thirteen states considered as states. It did not 
direct its legislation to individuals, but to sovereign 
states. Here was its weakness ; for states could not be 
punished for disobedience. What was the consequence ? 
It said to one state, " Go," and it went not. It said to 
another state, " Do this," and it did it not. Was money 
wanted ? The Confederation provided that the states 
should be called upon to contribute money ; and they 
contributed what they pleased. Were soldiers wanted .'' 
The Confederation provided that the states should furnish 
soldiers, and the states furnished as many or as few as 
they deemed proper. Were treaties to be made with 
foreign nations, the confederation provided that Congress 
should make treaties. When made, the states might 
observe or violate them, as they saw fit. The whole 
theory was faulty. The very life and soul of the sys- 
tem, if it had any life and soul, consisted in directing 
its legislation to states, and not to individuals. A go- 
vernment to be effective must have power to enforce 
its laws ; but no such power existed in the confedera- 
tion ; for its legislation was not directed to individuals, 
but to states. 

How did such a government operate in practice ? 
We might almost say it did not operate at all. The 
defects just noticed were fatal. Even while the Revo- 
hition continued the confederation grew weak. When 
the peace of independence was concluded, it grew 
weaker ; and with every returning year its powers became 
more and more feeble, till at length it seemed ready to 
expire from mere debility. As an illustration of its in- 
adequacy to the wants of the country, take the condition 
of commerce during this first form of union. We have 
represented the restrictions of Great Britain upon the 
commerce of the colonies as the long operating cause 



THE REVOLUTION. 233 

of the Revolution. Now that the Revokition had sepa- 
rated us from Great Britain, what provision was made 
for the commerce of the states ? There was none. Com- 
mercial regulations constitute a great portion of modern 
legislation ; yet under the confederation Congress might 
recommend regulations for commerce ; but state inte- 
rests paid little attention to congi'essional recommenda- 
tions, and the consequences were ruinous in the ex- 
treme. The war of the Revolution had nearly destroyed 
the commerce of the country. Consequently, the com- 
mercial interests of the states required the fostering care 
and guardianship of the Union. Britain still steadily pur- 
sued her commercial system ; and, unless the states 
counteracted her navigation acts by similar measures, 
their traffic would still lie in ruins. But the states, 
in this as in most other matters, had conflicting interests 
and no unity of action. If Virginia tried to protect her 
tobacco interest, Pennsylvania and New York adopted 
interfering measures. If Pennsylvania, to protect her 
iron interest, imposed duties on its importation, Massa- 
chusetts and Maryland admitted it duty free. If New 
York and the New England states taxed foreign wool 
to favour their own wool-growers, the Carolinas and 
Virginia defeated the protection by importing wool and 
woollen goods. By such jarring and spasmodic legis- 
lation the industry of the country was prostrated. Mas- 
sachusetts could not cultivate wool, Pennsylvania could 
not manufacture iron, Virginia could not grow tobacco, 
nor the Carolinas cotton. The people were sick, but 
knew not what ailed them. Some of the states had 
been impoverished, or greatly reduced by the war of 
the Revolution ; and the union under the confederation 
gave them no facilities of relief from their distresses. 
There were also many circumstances of a peculiar 
u* 



234 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

nature, which contributed to impede the little action 
which the confederation might have put forth. One of 
these impediments was the depreciation of the paper 
money with which the country had been flooded during 
the Revolution. The moneyless condition of the states, at 
the commencement of the war, has been already noticed. 
Congress tried to remedy this evil, by issuing the paper, 
known as continental money. By means of this expedi- 
ent, they had rallied the country to the support of the 
Revolution, and relieved their immediate and pressing 
necessities. Several of the states, also, issued their own 
paper money. But the usual fate of government paper 
attended all this currency. By the time that the con- 
federation was formally adopted, the continental money 
and state paper were fast running down. A pound of 
butter would sell for fifty dollars, paper money ; two 
hundred dollars would buy a breakfast, ten thousand a 
horse, and five hundred a hat. By-and-by these prices 
increased. Acts of Congress attempted to maintain the 
value of the continental money ; but like the assign ats 
of the French Revolution, it would depreciate in defiance 
of all legislation. A million of gold would have sup- 
ported it better than a million of congressional acts. 
But the power which issued the paper having no gold 
or silver for its redemption, its value continually de- 
creased ; and it finally died in the hands of the people, 
to the enormous nominal amount of three hundred and 
fifty millions of dollars. 

We notice these facts as exhibiting some of the pecu- 
liar circumstances which opposed the feeble action of 
the Confederation. With a smooth sea, and a gentle 
breeze, such a ship of state might have been borne quietly 
along ; but in the stormy times which closed and fol- 
lowed the war of tlie Revolution, a stronger vessel was 



THE REVOLUTION. 235 

reeded. In the actual condition of the country at that 
time, an energetic general government was required ; 
but the confederation had no energy. The bones in the 
valley of vision, as seen by the prophet, were not only 
gathered together, clothed with muscle, and covered 
with skin, but the breath of life was breathed into them. 
They then, and then alone, became a great army. But 
in the Confederation there was a system, an organiza- 
tion, but no vitality or power. 

This weakness of the general government was, how- 
ever, in accordance with the political ideas prevalent in 
the country at the time of its adoption. The states had 
just thrown off one governing power in Great Britain, 
and they feared to establish another. They were appre- 
hensive that a strong central power would absorb the 
little states. To decry such a government has always 
been a golden theme in our country, and was a theme 
particularly popular at the close of the Revolution. 
The doctrine of state sovereignty was then highly es- 
teemed. The people looked upon a general government 
as a type — a faint type it might be — but still a type of 
the British government, from whose domination they had 
just been delivered. They regarded the state goven;- 
ments as the guardians of liberty, and desired to inter- 
pose them as the shield of protection aginst the tyranny 
of a general government. These views produced the 
characterizing feature of the confederation ; namely, le- 
gislation for states, and not for individuals. In a word, 
the people feared to part with power in such quantities 
as would do them any harm ; and in their extreme caution, 
they did not give to the general government power to do 
them any good. 

Is it then matter of surprise, that experience soon an- 
nounced the Confederation to be a failure .'' The dis- 



236 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

contents arising from its debility grew alarming. In 
Massachusetts open rebellion revealed itself, and all 
forms of government were denounced as aristocratic. 
Wise men every^'here saw that the existence of liberty, 
and the final establishment of the Revolution, required a 
new and more energetic national government. Here 
w^as the great benefit of the Confederation. It taught 
the people the necessity of a stronger government. The 
Jewish ritual preceded the fuller diffusion of Christian 
light. The world had first to learn what human nature 
could do under a less perfect system, that it might put 
a proper value upon the glories of that last Divine dis- 
pensation, which brought life and immortality to light. 
In like manner, the defective Confederation preceded the 
more perfect Constitution, and taught men the necessity 
of a closer imion. The instruction it gave was obeyed ; 
and, in 1789, a more perfect union was formed, by the 
establishment of the present Constitution. Let us 
enquire a little into its nature and characterizing fea- 
tures. 

II. And here it may be proper to remark, that the 
American colonies were the first to adopt written con- 
stitutions. Through all the hubbub, and barbarism, and 
crimes which circulated over centuries of European his- 
tory, no attempt was made to adopt written forms of 
government. England at the present hour has no formal 
written constitution. What she calls her constitution is 
merely that body of customs or usages which has 
grown up through a long tract of time, and which is 
now recognised to be of binding obligation upon those 
who govern the country. Charters have been, on se- 
vered occasions, signed by English sovereigns, German 
emperors, and other princes ; but these were merely 
papers in the nature of a bill of rights — documents ac- 



THE REVOLUTION. 237 

knowledging the privileges of the subject and his free- 
dom from specified oppressions, Europe might have 
had a different history if her several nations had esta- 
blished written constitutions, prescribing definitely the 
rights of the people, the rights of the sovereign, and the 
frame-work and machinery of the government. This, 
however, was not done ; and the European race required 
centuries of strife to fight itself into political shape. 
The American colonies, on the contrary, early adopted 
written forms of government in the respective provinces. 
This practice was continued at the Revolution ; and the 
several states then either adopted specific constitutions, 
or conthiued to act under charters and forms which 
already existed. In their united ca])acity the states pur- 
sued the same plan ; and, after trying the confederation, 
they framed, adopted, and put in operation the Consti- 
tution of the United States. 

To understand the nature of this Constitution, we 
must remember the circumstances in which it was 
adopted, and the end it was designed to accomplish. 
The circumstances which gave it existence are familiar 
to every American, and need not be more than cursorily 
sui^o'ested here. The confederation Ir.ul been found en- 
tirely inadequate to the wants of the Union. A conven- 
tion of a few of the states, to consider the condition of 
commerce, and devise some system of harmonious ac- 
tion relative to that branch of industry, gave rise to the 
convention which framed the constitution. But the dif- 
ficulties which stood in the way of a new plan of union, 
were many and great. We have already intimated the 
reasons which operated in stripping the confederation of 
its strength. It was feared that a strong central govern- 
ment would tyrannize over the states. This fear, as we 
have just mentioned, gave birth to the feeble confedera- 



238 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tion, and now it manifested itself in opposition to the 
Constitution. In the convention which framed that in- 
strument, men of powerful intellect took ground in favour 
of the old confederation. They preferred weakness to 
tyranny. Sectional interests also came in collision ; 
southern slave-holders feared the free labour of the 
north ; the commercial interests of New England could 
not be reconciled with the peculiar views of the other 
states. The small states feared the large ones, and de- 
sired a government in which the states should have an 
equal voice. The large states desired a government in 
which numbers alone should be the rulers. In a word, 
every shade of political opinion appeared in the conven- 
tion. The Constitution was a compromise of all interest, 
and of all theories. This gave it many peculiar features ; 
and it is in view of this compromise, that many of its 
provisions are to be interpreted : such as the provision 
for an equal representation of the states in the Senate, 
the representation of the slave population of the south, 
the popular representation in the House ; and other pe- 
culiarities. From this compromise it derived an origi- 
nality, a character of its own, and also a dissimilarity 
from other known forms of government. Questions 
have been asked, whether the constitution is a compact 
of the states, or a government on a directly popular 
basis ? or whether Congress was not modelled after the 
British Parliament, or the States-General of France, or the 
Cortes of Spain, or the States of Holland ? But these in- 
quiries proceed upon a forgetfulness of the circumstances 
w^hich impressed a peculiar character upon our national 
charter ; for, viewed in the light of the compromise 
which gave it existence, the constitution is neither a 
compact of the states, nor a directly popular government ; 
but it is the Constitution of the United States. It has its 



THE REVOLUTION. 239 

peculiar features, its originality, and a character and 
nature of its own ; all derived from the circumstances 
in which it came into being. After its adoption by the 
people in state conventions, the new government it cre- 
ated was organized by the inauguration of President 
Washington in 1789. 

(1.) The characterizing features of the constitution 
you will readily perceive by contrasting it with the con- 
federation. The confederation directed its legislation 
to states. The constitution, on the contrary, directed 
its legislation to people, to individuals as individuals. 
It did not provide for raising armies, coining money, 
and executing treaties through the medium of the states — 

" No more of that, Hal," 

as old rollicking FalstafT said. No more of the con- 
demned farce of carrying on a national government by 
the help of state action. There had been enough of 
that. Accordingly, the constitution directed its legisla- 
tion not to states, but to individuals. Here was its first 
distinctive feature, a broad deep line running across its 
whole face. I do not say that in no case is the action 
of the states necessary under the constitution ; for they 
have senators to appoint, congressional districts to esta- 
blish, and other similar duties to perform. But the 
main machinery of the national government, and the 
execution of its legislative acts, are independent of state 
action. 

(2.) By comparing it with the confederation, we ob- 
serve in the constitution another feature of equal exten- 
sion and distinctness with the one just mentioned. This 
is the power which it has to compel obedience to its 
laws. In other words, the national government was 
clothed with authority to execute what it commanded. 



240 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The old confederation might command the states ; but 
the states, hke spoiled children fed on sugar-plums and 
other bonbons, obeyed or disobeyed, as they pleased. 
If they obeyed, they were good dutiful children, and 
were patted on the head in token of approbation. If 
they disobeyed, they were coaxed — if they still dis- 
obeyed, they were farther coaxed — if they still dis- 
obeyed, they were let alone. The constitution changed 
all this. If money was wanted. Congress was em- 
powered to raise money. If soldiers were needed, 
Congress was authorized to procure them. If treaties 
were made, the national government was clothed with 
power to execute them. If the laws of Congress were 
disobeyed, the delinquent was punished. In a word, a 
national government was created, and clothed with power 
to take care of itself. The states were left in possession 
of all authority not given to this new central organiza- 
tion. They were to attend to the duties of their internal 
governments, as though they were independent sove- 
reign states ; being, however, bound to remain repubHcs. 
But the national government was intrusted with all affairs 
of common interest ; and commerce, peace, and war, 
and kindred matters, were committed to its guardianship. 
Its limits are defined, and within them it is uncontrolled 
by interference from the states. Within its proper bounds 
it is a complete and self-acting government, and has full 
power to compel obedience to its commands. 

(3.) Another peculiarity of the constitution, exhibited 
by contrast with the confederation, deserves to be noticed 
in this connexion. Under the confederation, the execu- 
tive, judicial, and legislative departments were mingled 
together and united in one body. There was no pre- 
sident to take care that the laws were faithfully executed ; 
no provision was made for a judiciary, and no separa- 



THE REVOLUTION. 241 

tion of legislative power into two houses. The general 
government was committed to a congress which was 
clotlied with plenar)'- powers to make laws for states — to 
disobey. In tlie constitution these things were other- 
wise ordered. The new government was organized with 
a distribution of the legislative, executive, and judicial 
powers into separate departments. The experience of 
the world demonstrates that such a distribution is es- 
sential to good government ; and, even in several na- 
tions where liberty leads a hard life, there has been a 
gradual approach to this division of political power. In 
despotisms, a single individual makes, construes, and 
executes the laws, or at least has the control of those 
who are intrusted with these duties. But under the 
Constitution of the United States these powers are care- 
fully separated and distributed between the President, 
the Courts of justice, and Congress. This distribution 
constitutes a deep and radical feature of our national go- 
vernment, and is also found in all the state constitutions. 
We have now enumerated three classes of provisions 
that are elemental in the constitution of our republic : 
namely, legislation not for states, but for individuals ; 
power to enforce the laws of tlie Union ; and a distribu- 
tion of the legislature, judicial, and executive power 
into three departments. But it is apparent that the first 
two of these provisions are not pecuhar to a republic ; 
for a monarchy or an autocracy directs its legislation im- 
mediately to individuals, and executes its laws with 
rigour. These provisions are, however, noticed here 
mainly in contrast with the attempts made under the 
Confederation. We have an American system — we have 
the states and the nation — wheels within a wheel — and 
"we wished briefly to exhibit the division of political 
power between the states and the national government, 

X 



242 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and to suggest — merely to point at the provisions by which 
they move on harmoniously together. Were we to draw 
a contrast between our American system and other ac- 
tually existing forms of government in other parts of the 
world, we would represent the peculiarity in our political 
organization to be, that the popular will is the basis of 
our whole political structure, both state and national. 
I do not mean a popular will which expresses itself in 
fitful actions, exhibiting one phase yesterday and an- 
other to-day. I mean a popular will exhibiting itself 
soberly and orderly in the Constitution and Laws. These 
are the expression of the popular will in its aggregate 
shape ; and our government is merely the instrument or 
machinery, or body through which this will operates. 
No divine right to govern is recognised, or makes its 
appearance in the system. The people are the fountain 
of power, and the laws and constitution are their will in 
its collected form. This is the marrow of our repub- 
lican system. 

These are some of the prominent features of our con- 
stitution. By its adoption the thirteen states were united 
into a national government, and the Revolution was 
completed. 

Were we asked what was the nature of the results 
obtained by the American Revolution, we might answer 
by directing your attention to the position which our re- 
public occupies in the general history of the civilization 
of the human race. We have viewed that civilization 
as it exhibited itself in the Eg}'ptian circle of nations, 
among the Greeks, in China, in India, in native Mexico, 
and, finally, among the present family of European na- 
tions. With few exceptions it preserved, in all its 
phases and changes among these different people, certain 
common features, among which may be enumerated a 



THE REVOLUTION. 243 

union of church and state, and a political power derived 
from some other source than the popular will. The 
principal exception to this general statement is to be 
found in the Grecian states, which, in their early days, 
exhibited the forms of democracy. The statement, 
however, is in general correct, that in all the history of 
tlie world, landed possessions, hereditary descent, divine 
right, and great wealth, have been the main sources of 
authority in religion and politics. Power so derived has 
been aptly termed legitimacy — political legitimacy if it 
is exercised in the state, and ecclesiastical legitimacy if 
it is exercised in the church. Legitimacy is, conse- 
quently, the opposite of democracy — the latter denoting 
power springing from the will of the people, and the 
former a power having some other origin. The last de- 
velopement of civilization, namely, that which presented 
itself in the present European race, has exhibited several 
diversities ; but, through all its phases on European 
ground, legitimacy has prevailed over democracy ; and 
hereditary descent, divine right, or accumulated pro- 
perty, have been the sources of authority in church and 
state. In confirmation of this statement, and for the 
purpose of exhibiting the democratic results of our Re- 
volution by close contrast with legitimacy, look a mo- 
ment at the several forms which the political civilization 
of Europe successively assumed. 

Its first form was in the feudal system : where, accord- 
mg to our modern ideas of nations, there were no na- 
tions or states ; but where all authority was local and 
particular, the feudal castle being the centre of power, 
and the boundaries of the feudal estate its circumference. 
Here there v;as a legitimacy resting upon barbaric force 
and hereditary descent. Government was patriarchal 
rather than political ; but the feudal patriarchs were ba- 



244 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

rons, counts, and nobles rejoicing in other names — 
chiefs who were almost as intelligent as Black Hawk, 
and almost as civilized as Tecumseh. 

The second form of European political civilization 
appeared under the direction of the church : when the 
clergy attempted to put themselves at the head of political 
affairs, and form all Christendom into one vast empire, of 
which the Roman pontiff should be the chief, " and 
monarch of all he surveyed." Here there was a legiti- 
macy resting upon the idea of a divine right. The ar- 
gument by which it was maintained was short, conclu- 
sive to those who believed it, and ran as follows : All 
people and khigdoms belong to the Redeemer of the 
world, who may rule over them ; the Roman pontiff is 
his representative on earth, and consequently the Roman 
pontiff may rule all people and kingdoms in behalf of 
his Divine Master. Such an argument was brief and cool ; 
but the democrats of the present day think it proved too 
much. It was, however, the basis of the attempts of 
Gregory VII. and his successors, who aimed to form the 
world into one grand Christian empire, in which the 
church, by virtue of its divine commission, was to hold 
all authority, political and ecclesiastical. 

Another form of European political civilization was 
in the free cities of the north, and commercial republics 
of the south ; w'here the wealthy men of a town asso- 
ciated together, and, through the medium of municipal 
corporations, or in more modern language, town councils, 
exercised authority. Such organizations were, in the 
south of Europe, named republics, and in the north, free 
cities ; but all their power originated in an aristocracy, 
and was exercised independently of the popular will. 
Here there was a legitimacy resting upon wealth and 
hereditary descent. 



THE REVOLUTION. 245 

Another form of European political civilization was 
exhibited when royalty was established. By the close of 
the fifteenth and commencement of the sixteenth century, 
the nations of Europe had grown up and become pretty 
well organized ; and power was drawn away from feudal 
castles, from the clergy, and from the towns, and cen- 
tred round the thrones of kings. Henry VIII. of Eng- 
land, Francis I. of France, and Charles V. in Spain and 
Germany, succeeded to crowns which were emblems of 
real power. The German electors, seven in number, it 
is true, elected their emperor; but what part had the 
people in the matter ? Royalty appealed to heaven, and 
sought, in a commission from on high, authority to sway 
its sceptre. Here there was a legitimacy resting upon 
the idea of a divine right to rule. Henry VIII., Eliza- 
beth, and the Stuart kings, are the proper English repre- 
sentatives of this class of sovereigns ; and their dearly 
beloved brother, Louis XIV., lived, warred, and died 
in the idea that heaven had commissioned him to govern 
France. 

But democracy began to array itself against its 
natural enemy, legitimacy. The popular masses — the 
undercrust — the untitled — began to move. Commerce 
and the arts had enriched thousands ; and, from different 
corners of Europe, the doctrine was announced that the 
popular will was the fountain of political power. In 
England, with which we have more particularly to do, 
this doctrine exhibited its fruits in the commotion which 
overturned the power and cut off the head of the first 
Charles, The subsequent revolution of 1688, which 
dethroned James II., was another result of the same 
doctrine, and of essential service to the prosperity of 
England. But the condition of society, and the exist- 
ence of aristocratic and royal institutions, preserved 



246 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

legitimacy both in Britain and on the continent; and 
mothers still gave birth to princes. 

It was reserved for our own Revolution to give a full 
and perfect developement of a political system resting 
upon the popular will. Removed from the presence of 
royalty, and nobility, and ecclesiastical domination, the 
inhabitants of these colonies were able to establish a 
system of national and state government, in which de- 
mocracy took the place of legitimacy, and in which the 
constitution and laws are the imbodiment and manifesta- 
tion of the will of the people. The establishment of 
such a political system was the peculiar and distinguish- 
ing work of our Revolution. Neither kings, nor clergy, 
nor nobles, entered as distinct elements into the political 
system which this Revolution organized. The people, 
standing on the broad platform of political equality, made 
their will the basis of the government. Their political 
tabernacle was constructed upon this foundation, and 
made according to the pattern shown by reason and ex- 
perience. The ballot-box was substituted for legitimacy ; 
and the throne, the House of Lords, the established 
church, and the orders of nobility, were replaced by a 
representative democracy, with its elective officers, its 
free religion, and its political equality. 

" What constitutes a state ? 
Not high-raised battlements, or laboured mound, 

Thick wall, or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned ; 

No: men, high-minded men, 
Men who their duties know 
And know their rights; and knowing dare maintain; 
These constitute a state." 

This doctrine was the illuminating centre of the po- 
litical system formed by the Revolution. 



THE REVOLUTION. 247 

In the previous lectures we have represented this Revo- 
lution, and the political organization which it established, 
as the end to which the leading prominent events of all 
American colonial history pointed. Viewed in reference 
to this result, those events, in their general tendency, 
appear like the actions of different agents, all working 
the well ordered plan of a superintending Mind. Cor- 
porations tried to put themselves at the head of American 
colonization, and failed ; feudal nobles tried to do the 
same, and failed ; kings made the same attempt, and 
they too failed. The success of corporations, or nobles, 
or kings, would have established, in the colonies, a le- 
gitimacy — an anti- democratic power — which not even a 
revolution could have shaken off. But these different 
attempts at colonization, so far from succeeding ac- 
cording to the design of those who engaged in them, 
all became agencies promotive of the one common end 
■ — namely, the establishment of a government upon the 
foundation of political equality. The people of the co- 
lonies had long earnestly desired this result ; and when 
all preliminaries were adjusted, the Revolution ac- 
complished what a century of colonial events had pre- 
pared. 

The military part of the Revolution was not sufficient 
to make a democratic nation. The greatest danger of 
popular government was after the days of military success 
— in the dark and gloomy times of the Confederation. 
The bonds of union were, in fact, dissolved, and the 
states were each the sole guardian of popular liberty. It 
was feared that, like the seven Saxon kingdoms of Eng- 
land, or the dissociated chiefs of Europe, in the early 
days of feudal misrule, the thirteen states would become 
thirteen separate republics, whose principal occupation 
would consist in harassing each other. It was at this 



248 ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES. 

time that even stern upright patriots' trembled for the 
cause of free-government. For the states were quarrel- 
hng with each other, commerce was prostrate, the paper 
money had ceased to circulate, the wheels of government 
moved heavily, mob violence appeared, and Great Bri- 
tain was laughing at her spoiled, unruly children, on this 
side of the Atlantic. But this danger, too, passed away. 
The old Confederation yielded up the ghost, was carried 
to the cave of Machpelah, and decently interred. The 
Constitution, with life and vigour, came into being, and 
the work of the Revolution was completed. The con- 
stitution — not the mere paper agreement — but the actual 
political organization made according to that agreement 
— demonstrated the capacity of the American people for 
popular government. The excellence of this constitution 
will be the more appreciated, the more the eye rests on 
the dark and misty times when it came into being. Long 
may it be preserved. And while the flag of our republic 
floats in the breezes that come from the Atlantic and Pa- 
cific, may its stars and stripes long be hailed by joyous 
millions, whose acclamations shall re-echo from the 
shores of the St. Lawrence, and whose jubilations shall 
be borne on the mild and genial airs tliat breatlie land- 
wai'd from the Gulf of Mexico. 



PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



LECTURE VIII. 

FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 

Political parties arise from liberty — Origin of the Federalists and 
Anti-federalists — Views of parties in the eonvention to frame the 
Constitution — State sovereignty and national sovereignty — The 
Federalists and Democrats — Their primm-y dividing line — They 
divided upon the strength or weakness of the national government 
— Their main ideas — Their names — Measures on which they dif- 
fered : I. They diftbrcd in regard to the puhllc debt — Origin of that 
debt — Views of parties in reference to it — Results respecting it; 
II. They difi'cred in regard to a national bank — Grounds of their 
opposition to that measure — Reasons urged for it by the Federalists 
— Jefferson and Hamilton became the leaders — Their respective 
views and characters ; III. The parties differed in regard to our re- 
lations with France and Great Britain — Claim of France upon tiie 
United States for aid in the wars of the French Revolution — Pro- 
clamation of neutrality — Effect upon the parties — Relations with 
Great Britain — I'rovisions — Right of Search — Jay's Treaty — Tlieir 
effect upon the parties — French war threatened — Position of the 
parties — War with Great Britain — Views of the parties respecting 
it — These questions only incidentally connected with the parties; 
IV. They differed in regard to the army and navy — The Democrats 
oppose the organization of an army — They oppose the navy — Rea- 
sons of their opposition — These measures advocated by the Fede- 
ralists ; V. They differed in regard to the Alien and Sedition Laws 
— Object of those laws — Opposed by the Democrats — Change of 
parties — Review of their dillerences — The two classes of measures 
on which they differed : namely, the foreign relations and the do- 
mestic policy — The measures relating to domestic policy came into 
direct collision with one or other of the main ideas of the two parties 
— General conclusions respecting the two parties: (1) They ex- 
changed creeds when they exchanged positions; (2) They were 



250 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

pretty equally divided in regard to men and influence ; (3) They in 
general acted from patriotic motives; (4) They were not responsible 
for tliQ abuse of their political creeds by others; (5) These party 
discussions serve certain good purposes — These parties ceased with 
the close of the war of 1812. 

Who has not heard of Federalists and Anti-fede- 
ralists, of Democrats, of Republicans, and of the nu- 
merous other party names that figure in the history of 
the United States? If we fix our attention upon the 
country when the constitution was under discussion, we 
find Federalists and Anti-federalists. If we look a few 
years farther on in our history — to the administrations 
of tlie elder Adams, of Jefllrson, and of Madison — we 
find Federalists and Democrats ; and if we advance a 
few years farther, our ears are saluted with the familiar 
names of Whigs and Democrats. We design to draw 
your attention to the middle class of this enumeration, 
to the Federalists and Democrats — the parties which ap- 
peared in our country from the organization of the go- 
vernment to the close of the War in A. D. 1815. Our 
object in bringing forward this subject is to give an ex- 
hibition of the practical operation of our political system. 
We have given a detail of the means and influences 
which co-operated in the organization of our govern- 
ment, and we have also mentioned in brief terms the 
peculiar characteristics of our constitution. We now 
wish to draw your attention to the practical operation of 
this constitution, and to exhibit its actual influence upon 
the people. 

To accomplish this object we will select two or three 
of the most prominent developements which have been 
exhibited tmder our republican system ; and as one of 
these developements, which it may be both profitable 
and interesting to study, we will, in the present lecture, 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 251 

examine that party division into Federalists and Demo- 
crats, which ran along tlie first twenty-five years of our 
national existence. 

The bloodless battles of those parties have been 
fought, their burning zeal has ceased from its heat, their 
scoldings are ended, and their words and deeds have 
become matter of history. . If an old brand is occa- 
sionally raked up from the long subsided fires of Fede- 
ralism and Anti-federalism, it is looked upon as a cu- 
riosity, and, like the fossil bones of an extinct race of 
mastodons, its chief use is to make known that giants 
lived in those days. We may therefore examine into 
the conduct of those parties, and the grounds of their 
division, as we would examine any other historic facts. 

But why should parties divide a republic ? If free- 
dom be a blessing for which the human race yearns — if 
popular government be the only government becoming 
the dignity of our nature, why should party spirit divide 
the people ? In reply to such inquiries we have to say 
that political parties are the offspring of liberty, and 
tliat no governments, pure despotisms excepted, are free 
from them. They exist even in those nations where 
legitimacy has tlie ascendancy over democracy, and are 
found in Britain and France, at the present day, as they 
were found in the aristocratic republics of Holland, 
Switzerland, and Venice, in former days. In pure des- 
potisms they disappear, for tliere tliey find no food to 
preserve themselves alive. Turkey consequently never 
had Federalists or Democrats, as distinct parties, nor has 
India or China. But wherever a single spark of freedom 
has manifested its presence, there political parties have 
been formed. The human intellect is so constituted 
tiiat different minds view the same projects, and the 
same doctrines ditferently ; just as every gazer upon the 



252 PROGRESS OK TIIK UNITED STATES. 

sunshinf and cloud sees a rainbow difTcront irom that 
seen by liis iifi^libour, tli<)iii;li llic .siiiiR- sun and the 
^anic shower j)i()(hH't' the <;"orf^"iH)us lk'(.4in<4" arch. 

If, then, poUtical })ar(i('S arise from liberty, even 
■whi're it is pressed down to the f>T()und, and where, like 
the hon half burieil in the earlii, it |)aws to f^i't (iee, 
could wise men ex})ect that no such divisions would be 
found in our republic? If such expectations were ever 
formed they certainly were not reah/ed ; for ])arties here 
aj)peared. 

Till' jiartyisni of lOurope has in ^■eiierai l)een a contest 
between lej^itimacy and democrai-y, or, if you jjlease, 
between the suj)porters of divine and lu'reditary ri^ht 
on the one side, and liie advocates of pojjular govern- 
ment on the olJK'r. i>ul in the United States, the ilevo- 
lution chased away the Tories — democracy triumphed — 
and lei^ilimacy had her(> no lon^(>r a representative. 
'J'he partyism of the United Slates, in its lirst manifesta- 
tions, had conseipiently not nuich in connnon with that 
of Europe. It was rather of nati\i' {growth, anti had its 
origin in the pecuhar circumstances of the country. Its 
root was in a di\('rsily of views — in a contrariely of 
oj)inions between men who agreed in regarding the po- 
])uiar will as the fountain of political power, but who 
diifered al)out the melhoil of expressing or exercising 
that will. Some desired to exercise it princij)ally through 
the state governments, and others through a national go- 
vernment. 

1 repeat that the ])arlyism of the United States had 
its origin in the peculiar circumstances of the country, 
and I may farther add that the most prominent of these 
})eculiar circumstances was the existence of the several 
.states in conjunction with the national government. We 
may name this a i)eculiar circumstance of our country, be- 



VKDKUAI.ISTS AND nKMO(M< ATS. 25.'! 

cause in Fiii<>iaiul, France, and Sjiaui tlicrc \vas nothing 
of the kind. 'I'liosc nations liad each one cciilial so- 
ViM'('i';nty, hut no pros incial governments eoirespondnig 
lo onr stales. 

'J'iie inlluenee o( onr national and state or<;ain/.alions 
in orij^inatin^ tlie old political parties of our coinilry 
has always l)eei\ a mailer of notoriety in the llmled 
States. So prominent indeed has been this indiience 
that we may truly say that a stroni;', cner<>elic, national 
government was the main, leadin;;' idea of the old fede- 
ral parly ; whih; the e(|nally leadinj;" idea of the old de- 
inocralic parly was, that Ihe stales were the best depo- 
sitories ol" political power. In other words, the stales 
and Ihe Union were hront^hl into conlrasl. One sel of 
men were willing;" lo slren^llien the national al the ex- 
pense of the slate <;'overnmenls, and another sel of men 
■were willing lo slrengihen llie slale goNcrnmenls al the 
expense of tlie national. I lere was abundant material 
j'or party division. l\niii'S accordingly appeared, whose 
(lis('ussions were conlinned through Ihe lirst twenty-live 
years of our conslilulional history. 'I'he grounds of their 
division began to be seen c\r\\ during llie Kevolulion, 
hut it lirst lidly manileslcd ilsclf m Ihe couNcnliou wliuh 
framed the constitution. Afu-r llial form of goveriunent 
was adopted, and Ihe Union established, the same sub- 
ject of dis('ussi(Hi ri'a))peared in another form, and pro- 
duced as its legitimate iiuils the i<\'deralisls and the 
]Jenu)crats. 

If we look al the convenliou which framed the con- 
Stitulion, wt' lind a variety of piojecls foi' oiganizing ii 
national government. These projecis are, however, 
readily dislribuled into two classes, one of which was 
based on tlu; desire ol" an (>nergelic national government, 
cost whiit it niighl, while tin; other was based on the de- 
V 



254 rnnnnr.ss or riir. uNiTr.n statks. 

sire lo inainliiin llic sovorcifi^jly and iiidcjxMKhMK'c of 
the stairs. Tlic coiislaiitly-rccurrin^ and all-absorhinfi; 
qui'stion was: Shall the new govcnnncnl be national or 
ft'(h'ral ? By a nalional j^ovcrimu'Ml in this connexion was 
understood one cnianatinji; I'roni the |)('()|)h' in conlradis- 
tinclion to a mere h'a<j;ni; of tiic slates ; wliih- njcdcral go- 
vernment was, oil the other liaiid, a t'e(h'ration or leaf^ue 
ofllie states as slates. Tiiese antipodal systems {j^ave rise 
lo h)n<r and eaiiiest discussions in the convcMition. The 
Federalists, or those who advocated the s^sleni ol" a I'e- 
dcralion or h>a<j;ue, aj)prehen(h'd f>;reat danger h'oni a 
strong iialiDiial orgivnizalioii ; 1h(>y accordingly resolvt d 
to preserve the sovereignly ol the slates at all hazards; 
and to secure tliis resiill, they proposed to give tiiem the 
<'X(>cution of the laws of the Union — to allow them an 
e(iiial represeiilali(ui in (Vmgress, and to make them in 
general the coiitroHiiig powers in the new organization. 
Oil Ihe olher hand, the .l\'a/i()ii(i/lsls, or A nl i- /' tv/cm/wAs', 
desired not a league, hul an energetic national govern- 
ment — one tiial c(nd(i ])eip<'luate itself — one that con- 
tained within its own frame tlii' elements of ellicient ao 
lion. To secure such an organization, they proposed 
to abolish the state governments — to elect the president 
and senalois for life — to give the presidi'nl a veto up(Mi 
the legislalive acts of each state — and in general to 
clothe the new government willi supiHMiie authority over 
all oilier authorira's in the country. 

'riie views of Ihe A'a/ioiia/isis ])rcvailed at first; reso- 
lutions iinbodying their theory were adopted, and the 
primary elemcnls of Ihe C^)nstitulion as tliey passed in 
the Clonvcntion exhibited the word nnlionnl and th(> idea 
national in almost every line. There was the national 
Legislature, the national Judiciary, the national Exe- 
cutive, and other forms of a national vocabulary, all ex- 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 255 

hibiting the same idea. But great and serious opposi- 
tion was made to this system, especially by the smaller 
states, and it was confidently affirmed that such a plan 
would never be adopted by the people. Recourse was 
then had to the method of compromise — the term na- 
tional was carefully erased from every part of the Consti- 
tution — pieces of both systems were fused together — in- 
corporated into one — and there was to a certain extent 
an amalgamation of the theories. As an example of the 
results of this amalgamating process, the states were as- 
signed a federal or equal representation in the Senate, 
and a popular representation in the House — the presi- 
dent was to be chosen by a popular vote, but the states 
were to be electoral districts, &c. 

In this manner the Consthution was framed and sub- 
mitted to tlie people. Neither party was indeed verj' 
well satisfied with it, for it was too consolidating, too 
centralizing for the one, and too weak, too attentive to 
state rights for the other. The JVationalists ^ however, be- 
came its defenders. They availed themselves of the po- 
pularity of the name Federalists, and by one of those 
freaks that sometimes occur, no one knows precisely how, 
they succeeded in appropriating it to themselves, while 
they affixed upon the other party the name of Anti-fede- 
ralists. The defenders of state rights federation com- 
plained of being robbed of their good name, and declared 
that titles were now quite the reverse of what they had 
been in the convention. But there was no redress. The 
defenders of the Constitution did not however rely merely 
upon names, they laboured diligently to secure its adop- 
tion. IlamiUon, Madison and Jay were its devoted ad- 
vocates, and from their pens proceeded most luminous 
examinations of its provisions. On the other side, Pat- 
rick Henry raised his voice against it; Luther Martin 
with all his legal abilities opposed it ; and Hancock and 



256 PROGRESS OF- THE UNITED STATES. 

Samuel Adams, patriots without fear and without re- 
proach, showed it no favour. In the eyes of its oppo- 
nents it approximated too closely to the British form of 
government — the president was a king in disguise — and 
the whole system, like the image seen in vision by the 
ancient monarch, appeared a huge metallic thing, with a 
head of gold, a body of silver, and feet of iron, whose 
power and hugeness would frighten young liberty. 

But the opposition was unavailing. The constitution, 
after running the gauntlet of each state, and making 
many hair-breadth escapes, was adopted, and the parties 
which originated in its discussion ceased to exist. 

It was not long, however, before another division of 
parties began to manifest itself; and state rights in op- 
position to national rights again formed the basis of the 
division. Many of those who had opposed the adoption 
of the constitution, because they feared its monarchical 
tendencies, kept themselves on the watch to see the first 
exhibitions of tyranny. Others, who had earnestly ad- 
vocated its adoption, united with them ; and a new party 
appeared, whose creed may be summarily stated as fol- 
lows : The constitution should be construed strictly, and 
the national government should exercise no authority 
except what is expressly given to it — all other authority 
belongs to the states. The men who advocated this 
creed became known as the Democratic party. In op- 
position to them were others, whose political creed was 
the reverse of that just stated. A party appeared, who 
maintained that the constitution should be so construed 
as to render the national government adequate to the 
wants of the Union. The men who advocated this creed 
became known as the Federal party. Those who had 
opposed the adoption of the constitution were in general 
inclined to give it that construction which left most power 
with the state governments, and consequently arrayed 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 257 

themselves with the Democrats. On the other hand, 
those who had advocated the constitution before its 
adoption, were in general inclined to give it that con- 
struction which would strengthen the national govern- 
ment even at the expense of state authority. These 
naturally arrayed themselves with the Federalists. 

To these general statements there were, however, 
many individual exceptions ; and the Federalists and 
Democrats, under the constitution, are not to be identi- 
fied with the parties which, at an earlier day, advocated 
or opposed the adoption of that instrument of govern- 
ment. All that we desire to assert is, that the two main 
ideas which divided the country into two parties before 
the adoption of the constitution, reappeared in a modified 
form under the constitution, and became the basis of the 
division into Federalists and Democrats. It was natural 
that those who had advocated the adoption of the con- 
stitution, should desire to give it such a construction, 
and pursue such a system of measures as would give to 
the national government full power to take care of the 
general interests of the Union. This in fact occurred, 
but it occurred with many exceptions. For example : 
Mr. Madison, who had been the Ajax and Nestor in be- 
half of the constitution, and whose luminous pen poured 
floods of light upon it, ranged himself with the Demo- 
crats, and contended earnestly for that construction and 
for that system of measures which would leave the greatest 
possible amount of power with the states. Notwith- 
standing such examples, the Federalists endeavoured to 
fix upon the other party the odium of being unfriendly to 
the constitution ; and for this purpose applied to them 
the names of Anti-federalists and Democrats. The De- 
mocrats retorted by endeavouring to fix upon their op- 
ponents the odium of opposition to the state governments ; 



258 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and for this purpose applied to them the names of Aris- 
tocrats, Monarchists, and similar epithets. 

It is a matter of interest to trace the fortunes not 
only of nations, and parties, and individuals, but some- 
times even of names. Thus, the name Federalist is 
now, in popular language, a term of reproach. What 
was it originally ? A term of honour. In the Conven- 
tion it designated an advocate of state rights — one who 
preferred a confederation or league of the states in op- 
position to one who desired a consolidated national go- 
vernment. In the discussions connected with the adop- 
tion of the constitution it was appropriated, out of its 
primary signification, by those who espouse the cause of 
that instrument. After the organization of the govern- 
ment it was claimed by all parties. " We are all Fe- 
deralists, WE are all Republicans," said Mr. Jeffer- 
son in his inaugural address. But this name of honour 
has " fallen from its high estate," while its more humble 
rival has been exalted. The term Democrat, which in our 
country is now claimed by all parties, was, on the other 
hand, used in the days following the Revolution, as a term 
of reproach. Shay's rebellion and other incidents had 
brought the very name Democrat into disgrace, and the 
Federalists applied it in derision to their opponents. The 
circumstances of the times connected it with the idea of 
a levelling principle, which aimed at the destruction of 
all government. It received much hard usage, and had 
no friends, those to whom it api)lied disowned it — re- 
pudiated it — and preferred the name Republicans or 
Federal-Republicans for themselves, while they very con- 
siderately designated their opponents by the term Aris- 
tocrats. But shadows, realities, and politicians, alike vary 
their positions ; and a similar fact occurred to the party- 
names which we have now mentioned — they exchanged 



FEnERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 259 

rppntations : the one has fallen into disgrace, and the other 
has been exalted to honour. But though tliese names have 
been alternately in good and in bad repute, they have by 
common consent been ap[)ru'd to designate the parties 
which existed in our rejjublic from the organization of 
the government to the close of the war of 1812. 

We have stated the radical idea of these two jiarties. 
The Federalists directed their attention to the strength 
and energy of the Union, and the Democrats to the strengtii 
and energy of the states. Here again our general asser- 
tions are to be modified by many apparent exceptions. 
For many other (piestions came to be mixed u}) with 
these two main ideas, and formed matters of party con- 
test. The revolution in France was the most prolific 
of these secondary (piestions ; and as that movement 
agitated the whole European race, it produced many 
subjects of earnest discussion between the parties hi our 
own country. But instead of forming new parties on the 
several subjects of j)ublic interest as they arose, those 
subjects were referred to the parties already existing ; 
and what the one approved, the other condemned. 
Accidental circumstances also determined many in their 
choice of parties ; prejudices of which no account can 
be given, operated to make one man a Federalist, and 
another a Democrat. The inlluences of interest, of lo- 
cality, of connexions, of emjjloyment, of personal pre- 
ferences, all had their share in increasing the number of 
the one party, and in diminishing that of the other. But 
though many could trace their peculiar politics to no 
higher origin than these secondary considerations, yet, 
with the party leaders, and with all those who had com- 
prehensive views of our system of government, one or 
the other of the main ideas just stated prevailed. In 
this point of view, therefore, the parties were of do- 



260 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

mestic origin ; but they soon extended their disputes to 
our foreign policy ; and our relations with France and 
England became the golden themes of party discussion. 

That you may have a correct view of the controver- 
sies of these two old parties, let us take a rapid 
survey of the measures upon which they differed. In 
such a survey, general and imperfect as it may be, you 
will not fail to perceive that they first separated upon 
the radical idea of a strong or weak national govern- 
ment ; but that after this separation, their controversies 
extended so as to include almost every measure of do- 
mestic and foreign policy. 

I. The first system of measures upon which the par- 
ties differed, was in regard to the public debt. When 
the Constitution was adopted the states were in debt. 
These debts had been, for the most part, contracted du- 
ring the Revolution, and in behalf of the common cause 
of independence. Sometimes the local legislatures had 
raised troops and paid them ; and many operations for 
the general benefit had been performed by the several 
states, all involving more or less expense. The debts 
contracted in this manner were called state debts, and 
the several states were bound for their payment. 

Congress, during the Revolution, had also contracted 
debts upon the faith of the Union. They had borrowed 
money from France, from Spain, and from Holland, and 
there was thus a foreign national debt. They had also 
borrowed money, made purchases from our own citizens, 
and hired soldiers, and there was thus a domestic national 
debt. These three species of debts, namely, the state 
debts, the foreign national debt, and the domestic na- 
tional debt, still existed at the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion. They had, however, all depreciated, on account 
of the embarrassed and unsettled condition of the country 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 261 

under the Confederation. At the second congressional 
session under the Constitution, in 1790, several very- 
animated discussions arose respecting these debts. It 
was unanimously agreed that the foreign national debt 
should be paid by the general government without 
abatement. There was no desire to repudiate. But, 
when Congress came to discuss the subject of the do- 
mestic national debt, a difference of opinion appeared. 
The certificates of that debt had, in most cases, passed 
from the hands of the original holders, and had been 
purchased by others at a great depreciation. Some pro- 
posed to pay the holders of the certificates of this debt 
only the amount they had paid for them ; and others 
proposed to pay them the full amount. On this subject 
a long and earnest discussion ensued, which ended in a 
decision to pay the full amount of the domestic national 
debt. 

It was next proposed that the general government 
should assume the state debts. This proposition gave 
rise to another animated discussion, which ended in a 
decision to assume twenty-one millions and a half of 
those debts. The old continental money also received 
a share of attention, and it was decided to redeem that 
old fashioned currency at the rate of one dollar for a 
hundred. A funding system was adopted which pro- 
vided for the payment of these debts. 

I notice these matters in this particular manner, be- 
cause they furnished the occasion for the division of the 
country into the two political parties. Those w^ho op- 
posed the assumption of the state debts, and the full 
payment of the domestic national debt, became the De- 
mocrats. Those who supported these measures became 
the Federalists. 

The opposition of the Democrats in this matter was 



262 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

grounded on the main idea, that such an amount of na- 
tional debt would accumulate too much power in the 
general government. They argued that if a vast national 
debt were thus created, the creditors of the government 
would be interested to support it in all its measures, and 
that liberty would thus be endangered. The existence 
of the states would also be perilled. For Congress, 
being clothed with authority to lay taxes, would interfere 
with the action of the state governments, and finally 
break them down, and destroy the foundations of our 
republican system. Besides, the authority to assume 
the debts of the states, and to create a great national 
debt, was not granted by the constitution, and it was a 
leading doctrine of the democratic creed that the general 
government should exercise no authority not specifically 
conferred upon it. 

Some of these objections are set forth with conside- 
rable point in an article published in the American Mu- 
seum of 1798, which I here quote for more than one 
purpose. The writer, rejoicing in the name of Don 
Quixote, runs the following tilt. 

"Mr. Hamilton is the father of the funding system. 
He must have foreseen that those men whose fortunes 
were made by the measure, would consider their very 
existence as interwoven with his system, and they must 
stand or fall together. He must have known that, by 
this measure, he would enlist under the banners of the 
administration some thousands of rich men, made rich 
by the government, and, for that reason, prepared to go 
all lengths in support of its measures. This was pre- 
dicted ; and tlie fact verifies the prediction ; for a de- 
mocrat, that is a republican paper speculator, is a being 
no where to be found. * * * Why, let me ask, are 
tlie inhabitants of the states, south of Pennsylvania, in 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 263 

their principles democratic, and those to the northward 
aristocratic ? The fact will not be questioned ; and I 
believe but one satisfactoiy answer can be given, which 
is this — that owing to the superior industry and economy 
of the northern people, combined with some other causes, 
most of the public debt was, at the time of funding it, in 
their hands. This difference of opinion in the northern 
and southern states, is an irresistible proof of the deep 
policy of the measures that have produced it. That 
Mr. Hamilton and the rest of the aristocracy foresaw the 
ill consequences of their measures, cannot be doubted," 
&c. &c. — American Museum, Vol. 13, p. 119. 

When the measures relating to the public debt were 
before Congress, " Mr. Hamilton and the rest of the 
aristocracy" advocated them by arguments based upon 
the main idea of the federal party. Guided by the 
one consideration, that the general government should 
have power to render ample justice to all persons inte- 
rested, they contended for the assumption of the state 
debts, and for the full payment of the domestic national 
debt. These debts had all been contracted in support 
of the Revolution ; the states had borrowed money for 
that cause ; the Continental Congress had paid officers 
and soldiers with certificates, which constituted part of 
the domestic debt ; and justice and honour alike required 
the nation to pay the expenses of the Revolution. The 
Federalists also denied that a national debt would en- 
danger the liberty of the states, or lessen their import- 
ance. These views prevailed ; and the proposed mea- 
sures were adopted. As a consequence, the pubhc funds 
suddenly rose from fifteen cents to a dollar, and great 
fortunes were realized. 

In the discussion of these measures, the contest was a 
contest upon the radical principles of our government. 



264 PROGRKSS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

While the Federalists contended for an efficient national 
government, the Democrats contended for that system 
of measures which would draw influence and power 
away from the national, and accumulate them in the 
state governments. That the creation of a great national 
debt would give the general government an improper 
preponderance, was a fact most positively asserted by the 
one party, and most positively denied by the other. 
Each party saw its own rainbow. Each had its theory 
of republicanism, and desired to carry that theory into 
practice. 

II. The second measure on which the parties vitally 
disagreed, was the establishment of a National Bank. 
This subject was brought before Congress in 1791, and 
completed the division of the parties. The Federalists 
advocated it on the one general idea just stated. In 
their opinion, the general government was intended to 
be adequate to the wants of the Union. A National 
Bank would afford it facilities to supply these wants, 
and enable it more readily to transact its business, col- 
lect and disburse its revenues, pay tlie public creditors, 
and promote the general welfare. This was the view 
of the measure which was taken by the Federalists. 
On what ground was it opposed ? The Democrats op- 
posed it on the one general idea of their party. A Na- 
tional Bank, they said, would concentrate too much 
power in the general government. It would render that 
government too energetic for the states, and destroy the 
balance of our republican system. But the great force 
of tlieir opposition was directed against the measure on 
the ground of its unconstitutionality. They had pre- 
scribed for themselves the rule, that the constitution 
should be strictly construed, and no more power exer- 
cised by the general government than was expressly 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 265 

given or necessarily implied in the constitution. Judging 
the project of a National Bank by tliis rule, they con- 
demned it. They alleged tliat no such authority was 
given to Congress — that such an institution was not ne- 
cessary — and that all the affairs of government could 
be transacted without it. The Federalists asserted that 
the measure was constitutional — beneiicial to the coun- 
try, and one of the means usually employed in transact- 
ing the business of o-overnment. The views of the Fede- 
rahsts prevailed, and the bank was established. The con- 
stitutionality of this measure has of late years been elabo- 
rately discussed in our country ; and rhetoric, argument, 
sarcasm, and learning, have been exhausted in its exami- 
nation. We notice it here merely because it was one 
among the first measures of our government on which 
the Federalists were arrayed against the Democrats. It 
completed that party separation which commenced with 
the discussions relative to the public debt. 

It was on the question of the National Bank that 
Hamilton ajipeared as the leader of the Federalists, and 
Jefferson of the Democrats. These two men have been 
generally regarded as the imbodiment of the two great 
ideas of republican government in our own country. 
They had entered in early life with heart and soul into 
the great struggle for American Independence, and their 
patriotism had been well tried in that fiery ordeal. But 
there were certain characters and habits of mind and 
education which caused them to adopt very different 
opinions in regard to our republican system. As tlieir 
views became substantially the views of the two great 
parties of which they were the leaders, it may be inte- 
resting to look at the influences which brought diem to 
embrace such opposite political creeds. 

Hamilton, a Scotchman by descent, a native of the 
z 



266 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

West Indies by birth, had sought a home in America, 
and became the friend of liberty. An intellect of the 
first order, he advocated the adoption of the constitution. 
Tried in the military fires of the Revolution, he proved 
himself worthy of his adopted country. Looking at 
human nature in camps and armies, he formed no very 
exalted conception of its dignity, and had indeed but 
little faith in mankind. A member of the Continental 
Congress, he was intimately acquainted with the embar- 
rassments of the debilitated confederation. He had 
been conversant with the disgrace and difficulty of a 
weak central government, and naturally desired a con- 
stitution that would lift the nation out of its degradation. 
Endowed with a comprehensive mind, and capable of 
viewing systems in their utmost generality as well as in 
their practical details, he possessed a remarkable facility 
in originating forms of government and plans of policy. 
This familiarity with our national difficulties, as well as 
his superior intellect and whole character of mind, fitted 
him for action on an extended scale, and he became a 
leading man in the Federal party. He was in fact for a 
time its head. His position and influence among his 
political friends are pretty well hit off by the Democratic 
Don Quixote quoted above, who speaks divers hard 
things against " Mr. Hamilton and the rest of the aris- 
tocracy." He was perhaps somewhat ultra in his attach- 
ment to the national government, and regarded the en- 
croachments of the states as the real source of danger 
to our republican system. He was indeed a Federalist 
of the Federalists ; but his measures were, in the main, 
the measures adopted by his party. Being secretary of 
the treasury under Wasliington, he originated the plan 
of assuming the state debts, and of paying the domestic 
national debt. The plan of the National Bank was his. 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 267 

The plans of laying taxes and raising revenue were his. 
Being thus the author of those measures on which the 
parties divided, he may be fairly regarded as the type 
or representative of the Federalists. 

On the other hand, Mr. Jefferson was, by common 
consent, the head leader and type of the Democratic 
party. He was a man of an ardent temperament, and 
early in life had plunged into the turmoil of politics. 
The writer of the Declaration of Independence, his pa- 
triotism was unquestionable. An ambassador to France 
after the close of our Revolution, he saw the grinding 
tyranny of a great monarchy. He saw legitimacy in the 
midst of its evils, of its sufferings, and of its weakness. 
Devoted to the cause of democracy, he was apprehen- 
sive that it might be exposed to dangers from a strong 
government. Being in France at the breaking out of 
the great French Revolution, he became warmly en- 
listed in the cause of French republicanism. Little con- 
versant with the embarrassments of the doddered con- 
federation, he looked upon state sovereignty with more 
complacency than upon an energetic national government. 
He was indeed a devout worshipper at the shrine of 
liberty, but thought that her altars and her temples should 
be dispersed over the states, and not all built at the seat 
of national power. Absent from his country when the 
constitution was adopted, he had not participated in the 
discussions which preceded its adoption. A member of 
Washington's cabinet, he viewed with a jealous eye the 
earliest attempt to extend the powers of the general go- 
vernment. With these views, and with an intellect 
keen, penetrating, and comprehensive, he adopted the 
democratic idea of the constitution. He did not, indeed, 
originate that idea, but he became its imbodiment, its 
type, and representative. He arrayed himself in oppo- 



268 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

sition to the doctrine and measures of the Federalists, 
and contended for that construction of the constitution 
which would leave the least power in the general go- 
vernment. He abhorred legitimacy, and feared lest it 
should obtrude its "miscreated front" into our repub- 
lican temple. From all these causes, he became the 
active opponent of the National Bank, and in general 
of all those measures which flowed from the leading idea 
of the Federalists. 

Such were the characters of mind, habits of political 
thought, energy and intellect, of the two men whom we 
may regard as the leaders and representatives of the two 
parties. 

We may regard them, I say, as the representatives 
of the two parties. For though they were each tolerably 
ultra in their political creeds, the parties were of the 
same strong faith. The Democrats denounced the mea- 
sures of the Federalists ; and represented the assumption 
of the public debt, and the establishment of a National 
Bank, as stepping-stones to a throne in America. The 
Federalists were accused of innumerable political here- 
sies ; among which was enumerated their wish to esta- 
blish a monarchy, and "make a king to judge us like 
all the nations." Opinions and views equally heretical 
were attributed to the Democrats ; and they were de- 
nounced in energetic language as the promoters of dis- 
cord and disunion. But the most fruitful theme of 
party invective was found in another subject, to which I 
proceed. 

III. The third system of measures upon which the 
parties divided, was in regard to our relations with France 
and Great Britain. 

About two months after the inauguration of President 
Washington, the States- General of France assembled. 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 2G9 

Then commenced that series of events which agitated 
the civilized world. The first movements of the French 
republicans were received with eagerness and hope in 
the United States. When the first French constitution 
was adopted, the ardent friends of free government in 
America regretted that the monarchical feature of a king 
was retained. When the king was dethroned, and the 
republic decreed, the effect in our own country was 
electric. " From Maine to Georgia" there were great 
rejoicings — loud jubilations that the late ally of the 
American colonies had shaken off monarchy and was 
become a great republic. 

By and by came accotmts of the enormities — of the 
awful deeds of the French enthusiasts. A little later, 
and Europe was heaved into a terrible commotion. Re- 
volutionary France plunged into a furious war with all her 
neighbours. She then demanded that the United States 
should come to her aid, and help her to convert the 
world to republicanism. A treaty, negotiated in the 
struggle of our own Revolution, had united us with that 
nation in a mutual league. Her enemies were to be our 
enemies, and her friends our friends. When the French 
republicans became involved in the furious wars of their 
revolution, they availed themselves of this treaty to de- 
mand the assistance of the United States. 

This demand furnished abundant matter for discussion 
between the parties in our own country ; and the merits 
of the contest in Europe were warmly debated. The 
Democrats thought the treaty unconditionally binding. 
The Federalists did not so regard it. The former 
sympathized greatly with the French republicans ; but 
the excesses and abuses of those republicans had dimi- 
nished this sympathy among the Federalists. To adopt 
the democratic interpretation of the treaty, and unite our 
z* 



270 iMiocin.ss OK nil'. UNiri'i) statkh. 

jiiins lo IlidNc of l''riintc, would iilniij';*' lis iiilo \hv }j;r('at 
ocean (il l'">ii(>ii(aM vviU'Ciin'. Mni^limil had loiiiicd ii 
COiililioM (111 llic (•(inlinciil ai'iiinsl I'laiicc ; and {\\(: 
slmni lar'd wiUi n violence never heCon- witnessed. 
Wise policy re(niired llie llniled Slates lo Kee]) onl o( 
llie(|uarrel ; Inil exisliiij; Irealies seemed lo deniand that 
Ihey should taK(> pari in il. The ])arties in Ihe llniletl 
Slates divided upon Ihe (|iiestion ; Ihe |)einociiils cou- 
tendinc; that onr j'overnnient was l)o\nul lo aid Ihe l<'rciieh, 
and tlw l''ederalisls that there existed no such ol)li!>alion. 

Il; Wns, indeed, a iM'eat and awtul crisis in our na- 
lional history. 

'I'he llniled States hail miaranlied lo franco her poR- 
iSONsions in the West Indies, and Mr. .lelllTson, vvhosti 
.synipathies had heen warmly enlisted in liehall' of Iho 
I'Vench, earnestly desired to observe this guarai\le('. 
<» Mr. Hamilton and the rest ^A' the arist(U'raey" were 
resolved, at all ha/ards, to Uecp out of lh<- war ; and 
thry (hd lve<'p out ol' il. 'I'hey Kept out ol' it ; lor Ihe 
l''ederalisls prevailcil ; and Ihe eelelnaled proelaiini- 
lion oi' Neutialilv was issuctl l>v IMrsidenI \Vashint;ioii. 
This proclamation annoiinc<"d the dcterminaliou ol liio 
I'nited States lo remain neutral to he mere " lookers- 
on in Vienna," duriiif;; the l-'uropeaii uproar. 

In Uie discnssi<tii ol' litis measure eommeneetl llie 
.severe accusations and rccriminalions ol the parti<'S 
n|4'ainst eai h oilier respecting' /oirifi'ii inllurnre. The 
])emocrals accused Ihe TtMleralisIs ol" hcin;;- under Mri- 
tish inlhienc<>,and allt>ived that lh<«y I'avonred the procla- 
malion of Nenlralitv oul o\' allt>clion lo (Jreat Mritain. 
Tlie l'\'deralisls r<>criminated, and changed llic Dt'tno- 
orals with heiu"; under l''rencli inlliience. These I'liarges 
were n'peated and nMleratcd tVom the time ol Ihe pro- 
eh\n\alion ol" Neulralily, down Ihrouvli all Ihe wars of 



FICnKUM.ISTS ANM PKINUXMIATS. 



271 



the l''nMicli ic\ uliitum, ■.\\\i\ only cciist'tl willi llic ^(>i)i'nJ 
peace dI ISli). 

All unparalleled tlej^n-e ol hilh-rness was proilueed 
by Ihese reeijiioeal aeeusalions, A lari^c Ixxlv ol llie 
])ei)|>l<' liail eiilereil willi llie most »'iitlin,sia.slie tlevolum 
into tlie eanse ol l''reneli rei)iil»lieanisiii. 'I'liis ardour 
Avas much cooled l»y llie excesses of die Krcncli at home, 
but more particularly by the im|>i(>i)er conduct ol' their 
n!;'enls in our own <-ouiilry m allemptini^ to <'ontrol the: 
action ol our "Mivernmeut. 

Notw'ilhslandiui>, the dimimititui of enthusiasui caused 
by Ihese I'aels, there slill remained much to excite thii 
admiration ol the |ieo|)le ol the Ilnitcd States in behalf 
ol" {''rencli repuMicaiiism. 'I'he eMstence ol' the two 
])arlies in our own couiilry, and the accid(>utal eirciim- 
Ntaiicc ol a lew proiuniciil mm amonv, llie I )emocral.S 
beiiif; deeply mieresled in the proj^'ress ol' [''i<'iich alliiirN, 
while a lew ot (he h adin;', l''(MleialiNls were much dis- 
tjatislicd with the oulraj'vs ol l''ieiieli democracy, ;;ave 
rise to j^reat diversities of opinion ainonj.^ the people of 
thellniled Stales rcspectmi'; llie merits of the hVeiich 
J<(>volution. 'riiou,<;li holli parlies condemned its e\< 
r(>sses and sliuddered al its oulra!;'es, the Dcmoeiat.M 
were re!';arded as its apoloi^ists and deleiiders, and Ihe 
I'VderahsIs as its opponents. This divisKui ol opinion 
Mas aceideiital, or, in other words, it had liltle coii- 
ncMoii, il any, with the mam, leadiii!'; ideas ot tlw two 
))arties iii our own coiinliy. Ihil men lieiii|'; m oppo- 
Mliou upon one suhjecl, very commonly i';el into oppo- 
Nilion upon cNcry other. This so happened wilh th(> 
parlies in the llmled Stales. 'I'hey enlerlamed dilliicnt. 
Hnd (liseordanl ideas upon eerlam riiiidamenlal priiieiples 
ol our !';o\ I'liimeiit ; and, m e(Mise(pieiice ol lliis oppo- 
Jsilioii, tliey tooL diilereiil views of aliiio.-,! ev«'iy subject 



272 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

which came to be discussed. Each watched the conduct 
of the other with a jealous eye, and condemned opinions 
because they were the opinions of a rival. 

The proclamation of Neutrality, however, determined 
the policy of the United States in regard to the wars in 
Europe. That this policy was beneficial to the country 
is now generally admitted ; but that our government was 
bound in obedience to treaty stipulation to take part in 
aid of France, was most confidently believed, and most 
positively asserted by the Democratic party. 

But our relations with France tvere intimately con- 
nected with our relations with Great Britain. Those 
nations having engaged in a furious war, the United 
States were exposed to the injuries which are usually 
inflicted upon weak nations by powerful belligerents. 
Our commerce was exposed to their rapacity, and suf- 
fered much. When the w^ar between the trans-at- 
lantic powers involved Europe in smoke and uproar, 
the general current of sympathy in the United States ran 
strongly in favour of France and against Great Britain. 
The commerce of the states had been destroyed by the 
Revolution ; and the want of any provision for its pro- 
tection under the confederation, left it to live languish- 
ingly along till the adoption of the constitution. When 
the proclamation of Neutrality announced the determina- 
tion of the United States to take no part with France, 
the American merchants desired to profit by the com- 
motions in Europe, and make gain by trafficking with all 
the contending parties. This hope was, however, dis- 
appointed by Great Britain. That nation adopted cer- 
tain rules for the regulation of neutral commerce, which 
were soon found to be exceedingly destructive of Ame- 
rican trade. She declared provisions to be contraband 
of war, and prohibited neutral nations from shipping or 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 273 

carrying them to countries engaged in hostilities with 
herself. This prohibition operated very injuriously to 
American commerce ; for provisions constituted the 
greatest part of our export trade, and the rule of Great 
Britain would destroy this source of profit. 

Great Britain also announced her determination to 
search our merchant-vessels, and take from them those 
whom her officers might choose to pronounce British 
subjects. The United States were much opposed also 
to this rule, which operated the more injuriously on ac- 
count of the common language and common descent of 
the people of both nations. 

To adjust these and other difficulties, Mr. Jay was 
sent to England, where he negotiated the celebrated 
commercial treaty known as Jay's Treaty. What were 
the main points to be adjusted? They were many ; but 
the rule about provisions and the right of search were 
among the most prominent. What did he obtain in fa- 
vour of commerce in provisions ? Nothing. What did 
he obtain in the matter of search ? Nothing. These 
two points were left pretty much as they had been. A 
commercial treaty w^as indeed negotiated, and several 
advantages secured. But the main objects of desire 
were not obtained. Great Britain was left at liberty to 
seize the flour, the rice, or the sugar which the American 
merchants might attempt to ship to France. She was 
also left at liberty to board and search the American 
merchant-vessels for seamen and subjects. The com- 
mercial treaty was negotiated without a consolatory word 
upon these matters. 

This treaty, after great and serious opposition, was 
approved by the Senate, ratified by the president, and 
went into operation. 

A burst of indignation accompanied its ratification ; 



274 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the Federalists slowly became its defenders, while the 
Democrats attacked it with all the energy of indignation. 
The press levelled its artillery against it ; popular con- 
ventions passed resolutions condemning it; and pam- 
phlets and essays without number gave utterance to the 
opposition. The parties became more widely separated 
than ever; and the cry of "English hifluence," "Bri- 
tish gold," " English party," was raised slill louder, and 
echoed and re-echoed from every corner of the land. 

In the meantime discussions, earnest, long, and elo- 
quent, were held upon various propositions arising out 
of our relations with France and Britain. Resolutions 
were submitted in Congress for laying an embargo upon 
our commerce, in order to force England to relinquish 
her navigation acts. Other resolutions proposed to se- 
quester the debts owed by our citizens to the citizens of 
Great Britain, and bring them into the public treasury 
to indemnify our merchants for spoliations committed 
upon our commerce by British ships. Another series of 
resolutions, offered by Mr. Madison, proposed to make 
such regulations as would carry our commerce and 
manufactures to France, and draw them away from the 
English markets. The resolutions of Mr. Madison em- 
braced the substance of the commercial scheme proposed 
by Mr. Jefferson on the eve of his retirement from the 
cabinet of Washington. 

On all these measures of foreign policy, the parties 
were rallied in opposition to each other, the Democrats 
advocating them in their dissatisfaction whh England, 
and the Federalists opposing them in hopes of preserving 
peace with that country. 

While these views of our foreign relations were-agi- 
tating the parties at home, the French Revolution had 
run through its wildest excesses, and was subsiding into 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 275 

a popularized tyranny. The French directory, through 
its agents, was perpetrating outrages upon other nations 
as well as upon the French people. The sympathy of 
the Democratic party in the United States with the 
French republicans, gave the Federalists many advan- 
tages. In like manner, the forbearance of the Fede- 
ralists towards Great Britain furnished the means of re- 
taliation to the Democrats. Every outrage of the French 
was a whip with which the Federalists lashed the Demo- 
crats, and every injury done to our commerce by the 
British furnished the Democrats with the means of chas- 
tising the Federalists. 

The outrages of the French diplomatists and agents 
in the United States had, at several times, threatened 
serious consequences. The firmness and energy of our 
government, and the universal affection for President 
Washington, defeated their intrigues, and preserved our 
neutrality. But, in the administration of President 
Adams, the relations between the United States and 
France assumed a very serious character, and became 
the subject of severe recriminations between the Fede- 
ralists and Democrats. The proclamation of neutrality 
had given umbrage to France ; and Jay's treaty was a 
farther cause of dissatisfaction to that nation. The 
French resorted to the most imjustifiable measures to 
draw the United States into the whirlpool of European 
politics. French privateers attacked our commerce, and 
committed great depredations upon it. When the 
American ministers in France remonstrated against these 
injuries, they were ordered to leave the country. An- 
other mission was sent ; but the French directory de- 
manded a sum of money from the United States as a 
preliminary to any negotiation. This demand was ac- 
companied with threats of vengeance in case of refusal. 



276 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Such a demand, if acquiesced in, would in all probabi- 
lity have been repeated, and the United States would 
have become tributary to France. 

When informed of these proceedings, the people of 
the United States were amazed. Partyism was, for a 
moment, absorbed in patriotism. The indignity was 
not to be tolerated. An American feeling rose above 
every other ; and from the north to the south, from the 
commercial city to the log cabin, from the distant west 
to the Atlantic border, there arose one long, loud, re- 
echoed, indignant cry — 

<< Millions for defence, not a cent for tribute." 

Regiments were voted, an army was organized, and 
the venerable Father of his Country was called from the 
shades of Mount Vernon to take the chief command. 
But the storm passed by without bursting upon our young 
republic. 

These events placed the Federalists in the ascendant. 
They endeavoured, and in part succeeded, in the attempt 
to represent the Democrats as the friends and apologists 
of France through all these outrages. But, when tlie 
alarm ceased, the charges of foreign influence were re- 
doubled. Party strife ran high. While Washington 
sat at the helm of government, he moderated the contest. 
Now that he was removed, the storm burst forth with 
increased violence. When the apprehensions of a 
French war were not realized, the Democrats slowly re- 
turned to their former position. They insisted that the 
^danger had been caused by the Federalists, either inad- 
vertently through improper measures, or from a desire 
to strengthen the national government, by giving it the 
control of an army, and the management of a war. It 
was urged that the conduct of France had been misre- 
presented by men under British influence. To all these, 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 277 

and similar reproaches, the Federalists replied with the 
arguments and eloquence usually employed in party dis- 
cussions. 

The difference of opinion about our foreign relations 
did not, however, terminate with the administration of 
President Adams, but continued during the administra- 
tions of Jefferson and Madison. The embargo, the non- 
intercourse, and all the policy and measures which prece- 
ded and accompanied the war of 1812, were subjected to 
the ordeal of party trial. The war measures of Jefferson 
and Madison, it is well known, were pretty uniformly op- 
posed by the Federalists. The war of 1812 was a de- 
mocratic measure. Had the Federalists remained in 
power, the United States would, in all probability, have 
been engaged in a French war, instead of an English 
one. Great grievances had, indeed, been suffered from 
both Britain and France. But the old partialities of the 
Democrats for France, sent the stripes and stars against 
the British. 

When that war was declared, the old accusations of 
French influence and British influence were still re-echoed. 
The Democrats were denounced as the tools of Napo- 
leon, and heavy censures pronounced against them. It 
was alleged that they were willing to ruin their country 
out of partiality for the French tyrant ; and it was de- 
nounced as illiberal and iniquitous to engage in a war 
with Great Britain, when she, like a benevolent friend, 
was struggling for Christianity and civilization, against 
French atheism and rapine. It was said by the Fede- 
ralists, that if Napoleon conquered England, he would 
make but one mouthful of the United States. These 
charges, as usual, were retorted ; and the Federalists 
were stigmatized as the adherents of Great Britain — the 
British party, &c. It was generally believed that Bri- 
2a 



278 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tish instigation had set on the northwestern Indians in 
1811 ; and it was notorious that she had, under various 
pretexts, seized upon a thousand of our commercial ves- 
sels. The Democrats were willing to admit that it was all 
very benevolent in Great Britain to keep Napoleon away 
from the United States. But they were not willing to 
be tomahawked and scalped that Great Britain might 
preserve civilization ; nor did they admit that she ought 
to destroy our commerce, and seize our ships, in order 
to maintain Christianity. Their philanthropy stopped 
short of such concessions.* 

Without pursuing these matters farther in detail, we 
are warranted in making the general representation, that 
our foreign relations furnished subjects for the severest 
party vituperation. The Federalists were, by their op- 
ponents, connected with the interests of Great Britain, 
and the Democrats with those of France. The thrillinfr 
events of the French revolution, which covered the time 
of our national existence from its beffinninir in 1789 
until the year 1815, continually extended their influence 
to our country, and gave great acerbity to these party 
discussions. 

We must here, however, repeat what has already been 



* As an illustration of this want of benevolence on the part of Iho De- 
mocrats towards Great Britain, take the following extract from a con- 
gressional speech of the Hon. D. R. Williams of South Carolina, de- 
livered in January, A. D. 1812, on the eve of tiic war. 

" But we must not go to war with this England ; slic is fighting for 
her existence ! If her existence, sir, depends on our destruction, then, 
I say, down let her go. She is contending for the liberties of the 
world, too, it seems. I would as soon have expected to hear that the 
Devil had espoused the cause of Christianity ! Did she raise the 
standard of liberty in India? Is it to extend or secure llie blessings 
of freedom to us, that the fireside and the cradle are exposed to savage 
incursions in the west at this time ?" 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 279 

advanced, that the party warfare in regard to our foreign 
relations was accidental. It did not originate (he par- 
ties, and was not very obviously connected with the 
main ideas upon which they separated. The preferences 
for France or Great Britain, and the measures proposed 
affecting them, came in by way of addition to the mate- 
rials of partyism already existing. The measures 
growing out of our connexions with these nations, gave 
indeed much bitterness to party strife ; but there was 
nothing in the radical idea of the Federalists to connect 
them in sympathy with Britain, nor in the radical idea 
of the Democrats to give them a corresponding connexion 
with France. 

Having presented a cursory view of the party discus- 
sions which grew out of our relations with France and 
Britain, let us return to those measures which had refe- 
rence more exclusively to our domestic policy, and 
which gave farther occasion to party contest. 

IV. A fourth series of measures on which the parties 
differed, was in regard to the army and navy. 

In the administration of Washington, the hostilities 
of the Indians on the west required some provision to be 
made for an army; and the injuries to our commerce by 
the Algerines in the Mediterranean, demanded the pro- 
tection of a navy. The projects in reference to these 
two objects gave rise to much warm discussion. The 
main ideas of the two parties were here, however, the 
groundwork of the contest. The Federalists advocated 
such an organization of the army and navy as would en- 
able the government most effectively to protect itself 
against the hostilities of the Indians and Algerines. In 
this they were guided by the leading idea of their party; 
viz., that the government was, and should be in all re- 
spects, able to protect itself and the citizens. 



280 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The Democrats were not opposed to the efficient 
action of the government against these enemies ; but they 
found fault with the particular organization of the army 
which was proposed, and they also opposed the forma- 
tion of a navy in every form in which the project was 
presented. The government, they said, would receive 
a dangerous increase of power from the proposed army, 
but a still more dangerous power from the navy. A 
navy and a public debt they alleged were inseparable 
companions ; or at least no nation maintaining a naval 
power had ever been known to pay off a public debt. 
The immense expense connected with such an establish- 
ment would perpetuate the debt already existing, and 
thereby increase the influence of the general govern- 
ment. They therefore preferred that the United States, 
instead of establishing a navy, should purchase peace 
from the corsairs in the Mediterranean, or hhe the navy 
of another nation to protect our commerce in those seas. 

They also alleged that a small navy would be ex- 
posed to seizure by Great Britain or France, and that a 
large one would involve an expense altogether beyond 
the means of our government. 

These views were popular at the time ; and during 
the administrations of Washington and Adams no ex- 
tensive or permanent provision was made for a navy. 
President Adams indeed was in favour of it ; but various 
accidental circumstances concurred with the opposition 
of the Democrats in preventing the construction of ships 
of war. A few only were, from time to time, equipped. 
When Mr. Jefferson came into the presidential chair, 
he entertained opinions adverse to the naval ser- 
vice ; and the Democrats having opposed the measure 
Under former administrations, were not disposed, when 
they came into power, to veer round and advocate it. 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 281 

Besides, they argued that to build vessels of war would 
be merely building ships for Great Britain. President 
Jetierson accordingly recommended gun-boats as sub- 
stitutes for ships in coast and harbour defence. Their 
model and origin were found in the Mediterranean, 
■where they had long been used. Gun-boats accordingly 
were built, and cradled in the harbours and along the 
coast of the United States. But the plan met with great 
and serious opposition. The Federalists derided it, and 
averred that the country was endangered by trusting its 
maritime defence to the little, low, creeping democratic 
tortoises. 

Great earnestness was manifested through the country 
in the discussion of this subject ; and it was not until the 
capture of the British frigates the Guerriere and Java, 
that the two parties began to concur in acknowledging 
the efficient service which a navy might render to our 
country. When that demonstration was made, the gun- 
boat plan, like the old confederation, was genteelly em- 
balmed, and laid away among other mummies in the 
historical catacombs of the past. 

The differences of opinion relative to the navy, na- 
turally originated in the main ideas upon which the 
parties divided. But these discussions were afterwards 
extended and continued by accidental circumstances ; 
and much of the energy which entered into them was 
derived from party excitement ratlier than from calm, 
deliberate judgment. 

V. Another series of measures upon which the parties 
differed, was the Alien and Sedition Laws. 

The insolence of the French at the commencement of 
Mr. Adams's administration, and the success of the Fede- 
ralists in using that insolence to cast odium upon the De- 
fnocrats, led to some important results in regard to the 
2a* 



282 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

parties. The Federalists being in the full tide of power 
and popularity, enacted the celebrated Alien and Sedition 
Laws. The Sedition law was designed to prohibit all per- 
sons from speaking or writing matters disrespectful to the 
president, and other officers of the national government. 
The Alien law gave authority to the president to banish 
from the country foreigners w^ho conducted themselves 
improperly, and whose presence might be deemed dan- 
gerous to the peace and security of the nation. These 
laws being enacted by the Federal party, were seized 
upon by their opponents and used as instruments for the 
political ruin of the party in power. When they ap- 
peared, they were treated as ominous novelties. They 
came, indeed, directly in collision with the main idea on 
which the Democratic party rested ; for they were adapted 
greatly to increase the power of the general government, 
and to give to the president the authority of a monarch 
and a tyrant. They were accordingly denounced in 
most unqualified language ; and the Democratic party 
sounded the alarm, that the republic was degenerating 
into an aristocracy or despotism. Towards the close of 
Mr. Adams's administration, this party violence was at 
its height. Mr. Jefferson thus describes it in a letter to 
Governor Rutledge : 

" You and I have formerly seen warm debates and 
high political passions ; but gentlemen of different po- 
litics would then speak to each other. It is not so now. 
Men who have been intimate all their lives cross the 
streets to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another 
way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats," 

To promote this acerbity of feeling, the Federalists 
adopted the black cockade as a mark of party distinc- 
tion ; and a man distinguished his political friends by 
looking for this symbol of the Federal creed. The force 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 283 

necessary to execute the sedition law greatly aided in 
rendering these measures odious, and increased the ma- 
terials of party strife. Divisions also began to appear 
among the Federalists, arising in part from the course 
pursued by the administration. Mr. Hamilton, for ex- 
ample, even ventured to publish a pamphlet to prove 
that Mr. Adams was unfit for the presidency ; and while 
the Democrats denounced him as the friend of monarchy 
and aristocracy, some of the leading Federalists were 
also condemning him mainly because he inclined too 
much to the democratic creed. They did not allege 
that he belonged to the democratic party ; for he was 
the representative of the Federalists ; but, to adopt the 
language of those times, he was not quite monarchical 
enough for many prominent men of his party. These 
discontents among the Federalists, joined to the great 
unpopularity of the alien and sedition laws, were the 
means of ousting them from power. ' 

Thus the hour of federal triumph was the hour of 
federal weakness ; and, at the close of Mr. Adams's ad- 
ministration, the political wheel made a semi-revolution. 
The Federalists went down, and the Democrats went up. 
In 1801, Mr. Jefferson obtained the presidential chair; 
his party came into power, and the Federalists became 
the opposition. 

An old musician, named Steven, was accustomed to 
sing most vigorously, and beat time with his foot. 
When his body was laid to its final resting-place, his his- 
tory was told in the short epitaph, 

" Steven and time are now both even, 
Steven beat time, now time's beat Steven." 

Similar to this contest was the strugo:le of the two 
parties. Each in turn beat the other. Each had its 
hours of success and its hours of prostration. 



284 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The prostration of the Federalists may be directly at- 
tributed to the alien and sedition laws ; but if we look 
a little more extensively at the general current of human 
events, we might be disposed to attribute this change in 
the position of the parties to influences of a more general 
character. Our republican systerrt can only be properly 
developed by being in turn administered by men of dif- 
ferent political views. I do not mean that men friendly 
to monarchy, or to aristocracy, or to other forms of le- 
gitimacy, should have the privilege of trying how they 
could administer our republic. But I mean that the ex- 
cellence of our political system is more fully developed 
by the alternate ascendency of men who entertain differ- 
ent views of policy and measures, but who all have a 
common faith in the sanctity and practicability of demo- 
cratic government. If such a developement is promoted 
by an occasional change of parties, it is not speculating 
too much to say, that the alien and sedition laws, or 
the quarrel among the Federalists, were not the only 
causes of the change of the parties in 1801. The per- 
manence of free-government was, perhaps, promoted, 
by having it administered in succession by individuals 
of different political creeds. Men advocating one theory 
of republicanism, had tried their system. The time had 
arrived when the other theory — the one so earnestly de- 
fended and enforced by the Democrats — was to be 
brought to the test of practice. Accordingly the parties 
changed positions. 

Other measures beside those now enumerated afforded 
scope for party discussion. The purchase of Louisiana 
was advocated by the Democrats, and opposed by the 
Federalists. But the parties had then changed places 
in the government, and neither of them acted any longer 
upon those leading ideas on which the division originally 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 285 

occurred. They had, in fact, exchanged ideas as well 
as positions. 

In looking over the measures upon which the parties 
differed, we observe them to be divisible into two classes ; 
the one class relating to our domestic policy, the other 
to our foreign relations. In the first class of measures 
are contained those concerning the public debt — the es- 
tablishment of a national bank — the creation of an army 
and navy — the alien and sedition laws, &c. In the 
second class of measures are contained Jay's treaty — the 
proclamation of neutrality — Mr. Madison's resolutions, 
the embargo — and the various war measures, both in the 
threatened French war of 1797, and in the actual British 
war of 1812. The measures of the first class — those re- 
lating to our domestic policy — were the actual basis of 
the division into parties. They each involved the 
question. Does this measure confer a dangerous power 
upon the national government ? On trying each of these 
measures by this question, the Federalists said No, and 
the Democrats, Yes. This was the answer of the parties 
respectively, in regard to the public debt, the national 
bank, the navy, and the alien and sedition laws. The 
unconstitutionality of some of these measures was also 
earnestly maintained by the Democrats. But the 
question just stated was the general test by which they 
were all tried. 

The measures of the second class — those involving 
our foreign relations — became party measures rather ac- 
cidentally than by system. They were, indeed, most 
warmly contested ; but — like questions of legislation re- 
ferred to standing committees — the questions of foreign 
policy gave rise to no new parties, but became matters 
of discussion between those already existing. The 
pulsations of Europe have, for the last three centuries, 



286 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

communicated themselves to America. It was, therefore, 
a natural, because an ordinary result, that when Europe 
became involved in strife, such as the strife of the French 
revolution, the people of America should become, at least 
in sympathy, enlisted with one or other of the contending 
nations. This in fact occurred. But that the sympa- 
thies of the Democrats ran more strongly than those of 
the Federalists in favour of France, was, as we have re- 
peatedly said, an accident, and not the result of their 
system. The preferences for France or Britain became 
party preferences ; because a few prominent individuals 
in the democratic party felt a sympathy for France, and 
a few others in the federal party rather sympathized with 
Britain. Some other accidental circumstances combining 
with these, exalted the question of foreign preferences 
to a question between the two existing parties. The 
measures of domestic policy were, however, the ground- 
work of the party division. The Federalists, especially 
when in power, acted upon the main idea of construing 
the Constitution and adopting their measures so as to 
form and preserve a strong national government. The 
Democrats, especially before they came into power, 
acted upon the main idea of so construing the Con- 
stitution, and adopting such measures, that the greatest 
possible amount of power would be left with the 
states. Taking these to be the main ideas of the par- 
ties, a few general remarks may place their principles 
and proceedings in a more luminous point of view. 

(1.) The first remark to be made is that the parties 
exchanged political creeds when they exchanged posi- 
tions. The party in power generally advocated and 
practised the federal doctrine, and the party out of power 
generally advocated the democratic doctrine. It has 
been remarked of the Roman pontiffs, that no matter 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 287 

what had been their views of ecclesiastical government 
before their elevation to the pontificate, they all, when 
elected to the chair of St. Peter, pursued substantially 
the same policy. The early political parties in our 
country exhibited a similar fact in their history. When 
the Democrats were out of power, previously to the 
election, of Mr. Jefferson, they advocated that system 
of measures which would leave the least possible 
amount of power in the general government. This, as 
we have laboured to show, was the leading idea of their 
creed. 

In 1801 they came into power. 

What became of their creed then ? They purchased 
Louisiana ; they laid an embargo ; they declared war ; 
they established a navy ; they created a national bank. 
Here were several of the measures which they had op- 
posed before their accession to power. The bank, the 
navy, and the embargo were in substance the very mea- 
sures which the leading idea of their political creed had 
caused them to reprobate before they came to administer 
the government. And how could the purchase of Lou- 
isiana be defended upon the principle of a strict con- 
struction of the constitution ? Where is there in that 
instrument any power directly given to the general go- 
vernment to purchase foreign territory ? The policy of 
the purchase is not now in question ; but the power to 
make it can only be found in the constitution by giving 
to it that liberal construction which was once contended 
for by the Federalists, and condemned by the Democrats. 

We are here expressing neither approbation nor dis- 
approbation of this change in the main idea of the old 
democratic party. We are merely reciting the fact, that 
when they came into power they pursued substantially 
the same measures, and adopted that latitude of consti- 



288 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

tutional construction which they had reprobated when 
out of power. 

But the Democrats were not tlie only men who re- 
ceded from their ground after they obtained the admi- 
nistration of the government in 1801. The FederaUsts 
made a similar change ; but instead of moving onward 
to a more rigid and stringent theory of government, 
they countermarched, and occupied pretty nearly the 
same ground that had been formerly held by their op- 
ponents. When they were in the ascendency, they ad- 
vocated a large power in the general government, and 
a liberal construction of the constitution. This theory 
led them to adopt those measures which have been 
already noticed. But when the political wheel made its 
revolution, and left them out of place, they forthwith 
abandoned the main idea of their theory, and opposed 
measures similar in principle to those which they for- 
merly advocated. For example, they opposed the pur- 
chase of Louisiana, and the various war measures of 
Jefferson and Madison. The embargo, the non-inter- 
course, the declaration of war, and the subordinate 
military movements, found no favour in their eyes. 
These measures, they said, accumulated too much power 
in the general government, and endangered our repub- 
lican system. If we look from their opposition of mea- 
sures to their political creed as promulgated in their con- 
ventions, and addresses, and pamphlets, and whole party 
life, after A. D. 1800, we find that they ceased to ad- 
vocate a strong national government. The Hartford 
Convention talked about the constitution in the language 
of the Democrats of 1798, and proposed amendments 
to it that would have materially abridged the power of 
the general government. 

When the war of 1812 agitated the country, the 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 289 

Federalists denounced it, and laid the sin of the strife 
upon the Democratic administration. They endeavoured 
to exculpate Great Britain at the expense of our own 
government. We might draw a comparison between 
their conduct on this occasion and the conduct of the 
Democrats in 1798, in regard to the threatened French 
war. Each in its proper season found fault with the ex- 
isting administration, and denounced it for attempting to 
increase its influence by plunging the country into a fo- 
reign war. What the Democrats would have done in 
the event of an actual French war in 1798, is merely 
matter of speculation. They apologized for the inso- 
lence of the French, pretty much as the Federalists apo- 
loo-ized for the outrasjes of Great Britain in the war of 
1812 ; and we know that the Federalists were politically 
ruined by their opposition to that war. Each party was, 
in turn, placed in a disadvantageous light by under- 
taking an indiscriminate opposition to the measures of 
the other. The Democrats when out of power had op- 
posed almost all the measures of the federal administra- 
tion, and in consequence were compelled to bear griev- 
ous burdens. The Federalists, after 1801, undertook 
a similar indiscriminate opposition to the measures of 
the democratic administrations, and were broken down 
and politically annihilated in the attempt. Had each 
party restrained itself so as to come in collision with the 
other only on measures involving their fundamental and 
main ideas, both would have fared better. Such, how- 
ever, is the tendency of partyism. At variance upon 
one point, men are not predisposed to harmonize upon 
another ; and the parties accordingly not only exchanged 
positions upon the election of Mr. Jefferson, but they 
also exchanged ideas and conduct. 

In saying that they exchanged ideas, we refer of 
2b 



290 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

course to their ideas upon a strong or narrowly-limited 
general government, which constituted their primary 
dividing line. We do not refer to federalism as it was 
represented by the Democrats, nor to democracy as it 
was represented by the Federalists, If the Federalists, 
composed of "Mr. Hamilton and the rest of the aristo- 
cracy," were averse to our republican system ; if they 
were friends of monarchy or of legitimacy in any shape ; 
if they were political aristocrats, who preferred a heredi- 
tary king to an elective president, and the British con- 
stitution to our popular government ; if the Federalists 
were political renegades of this description, then the 
Democrats did not adopt their ideas. If the Democrats, 
on the other hand, were whhout principle, and opposed 
to all government ; political buccaneers ; mere levellers 
in faith and practice, then the Federalists did not adopt 
their ideas. But in regard to the primary dividing line 
of the parties — the strength or weakness of the general 
government — when they exchanged positions they ex- 
changed ideas and conduct. 

(2.) Another fact in the history of the parties is that, 
previously to the war of 1812, they were pretty equally 
divided in point of members, talents, leading men, and 
property. Pure and impure materials entered into the 
composition of them both. The accidental circum- 
stances of connexions, interests, and prejudices, were 
so distributed that the one party was nearly or altogether 
upon an equality with tlie other. It was in the first ad- 
ministration of Washington that the party lines were 
drav/n, when the country was agitated with the questions 
of the public debt and the national bank. The influ- 
ence of Washington was exerted to cool the warmth of 
the contending parties rather than to sustain either in its 
ultraism. With the leaders, JefTerson and Hamilton, in 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 291 

his first cabinet, he became well acquainted with the 
views and wishes of each party. He maintained the 
peace of the country, when the outrages of tlie French 
impelled the Federalists to a rupture. He endeavoured 
to pour the oil of tranquillity upon the agitated ocean, 
when the Democrats invoked him to resent the indigni- 
ties of Britain. He signed Jay's treaty, when the con- 
sequences of its rejection would have been, in all proba- 
bility, an immediate war. In his views of the constitu- 
tion it would seem that he adopted, in the main, the 
leading idea of the Federalists, and desired a strong na- 
tional government. But both parties sought to appro- 
priate the force of his character to the support of their 
pretensions. On this point, Mr. Jefferson, in the evening 
of life, speaks out with the sanie warmth and decision 
which marked the mid-day of the strife, and says, 

" The Federalists, pretending to be tlie exclusive 
friends of General Washington, have ever done what 
they could to sink his character, by hanging theirs on it, 
and by representing as the enemy of republicans, him 
who of all men is best entitled to the appellation of the 
father of that republic which they were endeavouring to 
subvert, and the republicans to maintain." — Corr. Vol. 
iv. 406. 

But leaving out of view General Washington, as a 
man too exalted to be the mere head of a party, we find 
among the Federalists, Hamilton, and Adams, and 
Ames, and Jay, and Pickering, and others, who were 
ornaments to their country and to mankind. Jefferson, 
and Madison, and Gerry, and others, appeared in the 
opposite rank, and by their talents and iniluence gave an 
impulse to its several parts. The leaders, on both sides, 
played off their artillery with all the effect which experi- 
ence and earnestness could give them, and gained the 



292 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

support of many whose views of national matters were 
limited to the township or village in which they voted. 

By the Don Quixote above quoted, we are told that 
the Federalists prevailed in the northern states, and the 
Democrats had the ascendancy in the south. This is a 
correct statement of their geographical distribution. In 
the region where the Federalists prevailed, they embraced 
the greater part of the wealth, talent, and influence of 
the country. In the south and west, where the De- 
mocrats prevailed, they monopolized the wealth, the 
talent, and the influence. 

(3.) Another fact in the history of the parties is that each 
was, in general, influenced by upright, patriotic motives. 
The peculiar circumstances of our republican system 
very naturally produced the Federalists and the Demo- 
crats — the former to contend for an energetic national 
government, and the latter for the accumulation of power 
in the state governments. The peculiar circumstances 
of the European family of natioms, and the bursting forth 
of the French revolution, contemporary with the organi- 
zation of our republic, furnished materials for discussion 
to the parties already formed in our country. Accusa- 
tions of French influence were heaped upon the heads 
of the Democrats. Similar accusations of British influ- 
ence were hurled against the Federalists ; and a recri- 
minating warfare was waged, in which the figures of 
rhetoric were exhausted, and every shade of contempt 
expressible by word, or deed, or feature, was expressed 
by each party towards the other. Each treated its rival 
with the disdain of the old epigrammatist who told the 
screaking fiddler, 

" Old Orpheus play'd so well he moved old Nick, 
But thou mov'st nothing but thy fiddle -stick." 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 293 

The trulh however is, that both parties were free 
from foreign influence. Neither cared for France or 
Great Britain farther than it was impelled by views of 
national policy and commercial profit. The sympathy, 
indeed, of all parties was enlisted with the French at 
the commencement of their revolution ; and France, 
having offered the United States free entrance into her 
ports, presented the prospect of more commercial gain 
than was offered by Great Britain. But France was 
under American influence, rather than the Democrats 
under French influence. " The French," says the 
author of Lacon, " served an apprenticeship to Liberty 
in America, went home, and set up for themselves. But 
the machine they built uas so ill contrived, and ran so 
fast, that it set itself on fire and kifled all the workmen." 

The Democrats had certainly no improper control 
from France, nor tlie Federalists from Great Britain ; 
yet each party denounced the leaders of the other on the 
ground of foreign influence ; and the periodicals of that 
day groan with the harsh language and heavy charges 
which party zeal employed. For example, Mr. Jefferson 
was singled out to receive the reprobations of the flaming 
Federalists. Every bad motive in the calendai' of po- 
litical immorality was imputed to him ; and snakes, and 
creeping things, and vile animals, in the kingdom of 
brutes, were pressed into the service, and employed to 
figure forth his degradation. 

On the other hand Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Adams 
received the severe accusations of the Democrats, Mr. 
Hamilton was accused of a design to establish a monarchy 
on the model of the British constitution. His plan for 
a national bank, and for the assumption of the state 
debts, was alleged to arise from a desire to rule in 
America by bribery and corruption. By the bank and 
2b* 



294 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 

public debt he could rule Congress, and, like Walpole, 
govern by bargain and sale. He would thus introduce 
monarchy, while the people were amused and deluded 
with the forms of republicanism. 

President Adams, also, after the enactment of the alien 
and sedition laws, became the target for all the shots of 
the Democrats. He was compared to every image of 
tyranny, from Nebuchadnezzar and his burning furnace 
to the great beast in the Revelations with the seven heads 
and ten horns. Aristocratical and monarchical doctrines 
were attributed to him ; and the actions of his public life, 
and the productions of his pen, were alike viewed 
tlirough the smoked discolouring glass of party prejudice. 

But party denunciations were not confined to these 
prominent men. When our difficulties with England 
led to the embargo, the non-intercourse, and finally to 
war, the Federalists kejot up against the Democrats a 
continual fire ; and charges of tyranny, monarchy, cor- 
ruption, foreign influence, and wanton ruin, were heaped 
upon the party in power. 

But, removed in time from those spirit-stirring scenes, 
we can look back upon these railing accusations, and 
find much to admire in those most worthy men who 
acted in the young days of our republic. Their mutual 
charges of corruption, and tyranny, and monarchical 
views, we must attribute to the warmth of party zeal. 
It requires no great exercise of charity to acquit them 
entirely of all such accusations, and to believe them 
all to have been genuine friends of their country, 
and friends of our republican system. There is enough 
in the circumstances of those times to account for the 
conduct of both parties, without supposing either of them 
to have been destitute of patriotism or republican virtue. 
And, indeed, if we look at the conduct and whole lives 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 295 

of the leading men of both parties, we are forced to the 
conclusion that they were men who loved democracy, 
and hated legitimacy in all its forms and developements. 
The establishment of a national government was a new 
and untried experiment, and patriots formed different 
views of its dangers, necessities, and structure. Patrick 
Henry raised his voice against the adoption of our na- 
tional constitution ; yet who ever suspected his patriotism, 
or believed that he was a friend of aristocracy or monar- 
chy ? John Hancock feared that our constitution would 
lead to tyranny ; but was he, therefore, a corrupt man, 
and an enemy to republicanism ? And if we come down 
to Jefferson, and Madison, and Hamilton, and Adams, 
and their associates, we find differences of opinion — 
and various theories of government — but democracy 
was the common basis on which all those men stood. 
They might have basked in the sunshine of the British 
throne ; but they preferred a republic in America to all 
the stars, and garters, and ribbons of England. For 
this republic they had contended even when the British 
halter was prepared for their neck ; and in the dark hours 
of revolutionary adversity they had fixed their eye upon 
the flag of their country, and were ever ready to join in 
the choral song, 

" For ever float that standard sheet ! 
Where breathes the foe but flills before us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet 
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ?" 

Adams was an ultra republican in the days of stamp 
acts and tea bills ; and even in Boston — refractory, re- 
volutionary Boston — he outstripped the spirit of oppo- 
sition to British tyranny ; and old men, haters of Eng- 
lish oppression, pointed at him as a young enthusiast of 
liberty, whose zeal had run away with his judgipent. 



296 PROGRESS OF TIIK UNITED STATES. 

To liiin the country owed the ni)]H)iiitmeiil of Washington 
as eonunander-iu-ehief; he moved the Deehinitiou of 
Independence ; and to his unchanging zeal his country is 
•witness, Jellerson also was a prominent advocate of the 
Revolution ; and his uniform defence of democratic in- 
stitutions exhibits his unceasing hostility to monarchy 
and every form of legitimacy. With tliese two cham- 
pions were associated in ojjposite parties many others 
of kindred sjjirits. Such men are b(>yond the suspicion 
of monarchical views, or of a project to ruin their 
country. Their dillerences were such as may exist 
among honest men, and their measures were in general 
the result of their dillcTcnt theories of republicanism in 
its connexion with the peculiar circumstances of the 
rountry. Their conunon hoiu'sty may be well expressed 
in the language of Washington, who, in writing to Jef- 
ferson res})ec,ting the diireienccs of opinion between that 
gentleman and Hamilton, says: 

"I will frankly and solemnly declare, that I believe 
the view's of both to be ])ure and well meant, and that 
experience only will decide with respect to the salubrity 
of the measures which are the subjects of dispute." 

'i'his opinion of the Father of his Country we would 
willingly extend from these prominent nu'n, and apjily 
it to the parties of which they were the respective chiefs. 
'J'hat many errors were comnutted, and many ill-advised 
measures adopted, cannot be denied. The alien and 
sedition laws, for example, were ceitalnly not in hai- 
mojiy with the genius of oin* institutions. But it is judg- 
ing the fathers of our republic by too severe a rule, to 
condemn them for every error which was eommitteil in 
the commencement of an untried system of goveriunent. 
It is more just to the memory of those worthy men to 
award to them the credit of honesty and patriotism, imd 



FKDERALTSTS AND DEMOCIIATS. 297 

to put down tlu'ir errors lo tJic account of the connnon 
iinju'rfections ol' our imlurc. Tlicir ir.iiucs arc willi the 
(lead ; their re[)utalion is in ihe l<eej)in^' of llieir eounlry. 
7\s pari of that comitiy, we repeat wlial we have ahcady 
assi-rleil, that the two i)()htical parlies were, in Ihe main, 
honest in their hehef, patriotic in their inti-ntions, and 
devoted to the cause of re})uhhcaiiisni. The nuMi of 
the one parly did not hn'e Frani'e, nor those of tlie 
oUu'r liritain, to the injury of their own (h'inocratic 
America. I'\)r their own country they cared ; her tliey 
loved, and her institutions they ck'sired to perfect. VVo 
might })resent a single examj)k' of this j)referenee of our 
own country, and then generah/.e it so as to extend its 
princi}ih* lo the men of all parlies. I^et us select one 
such e>:amj)le. Take Ihe following: When l''rench de- 
mocracy ran wild, and, among oilier excess'cs, sent Iho 
minister (!enel lo dislurh our rc[)ul)lic, seven- accusa- 
tions of suhserviency to I'^rance were alleged against the 
])emocrats. Jeirerson, the head of that parly, corres- 
ponded, in his ollicial capacity as secretary of state, with 
tlie Trench minister; ami when the correspondence was 
puhlisheil, what evidence of French inlhience was de- 
veloped ? Not a particle. The correspondence on ins 
part was all over American. Extend this example — at- 
tribute a similar nationality to the conduct of Ihe two 
parties, and we have a fair rei)resentation of that Jlnie- 
rican inlhience which was at work. 

Hut there is another idea deserves lo he mentioned 
in this connexion. 

(■1.) Tn viewing Ihe political creeds of the parlies hy 
Hie light of a larger experience, we must not condenui 
the Federalists or Democnits because their doctrines or 
measures may have been perverted, or their sympathies 
bestowed upon men who proved unworthy of them. 



298 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The men of both parties hailed the dawn of the French 
Revolution ; and the Democrats continued to sympathize 
with the French republicans after the sympathy of their 
opponents was withdrawn. But were the Democrats 
responsible for the atrocities of the French ? Come to 
a more modern example. If the Democrats preferred 
the accumulation of power in the state governments, 
they were not rCvSponsible for nullification, which at- 
tempted to exalt the states on the ruins of the nation. 
They contemplated no such result. They stopped far 
short of such doctrine. 

(5.) Let it not be supposed that such party discus- 
sions were useless, and altogether injurious. They 
served their purpose in the developement of our repub- 
lican system, and demonstrated that democracy on an 
extended scale is practicable in these United States. 
The friends of legitimacy may say that such party re- 
crimination is a very great evil, and they may praise the 
simplicity and tranquillity of monarchies and despotisms. 
But the bloodless warfare of the Federalists and Demo- 
crats was a small evil when compared with the contem- 
porary military conflicts which, originating in monarchy, 
cut deep into the vitals of Europe. Simplicity in go- 
vernment is very desirable ; but the political machine 
may be too simple. It may consist of a single head, 
who is legislator, judge, and executive, and whose single 
will determines the measures of his government. But 
such simplicity, and the various grades of approximation 
to it, are sorer evils than that party discussion which 
arises where freemen ordain and administer their own 
government. And in regard to tranquillity, there is a 
tranquillity of death and legitimacy ; but where is the 
tranquillity of life and liberty ? The blood circulates in 
the animal, and the juices in the plant ; their action ac- 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 299 

companies and perpetuates life ; when they cease to 
move, the material organization is dissolved. There is, 
in like manner, an unceasing activity which accom- 
panies and perpetuates liberty in political affairs, and of 
which party movements are one of the manifestations. 
We are, therefore, disposed to conclude, that the dis- 
cussions between the Federalists and Democrats, though 
often violent and blameworthy, were in the main bene- 
ficial. 

We do not wish to be understood as defending or 
encouraging the spirit of partyism. The farewell ad- 
dress of the Father of his Country on this point speaks 
a language to which every American heart must respond 
Amen. All that we desire to assert is, that the activity 
and partyism of free government is more desirable to an 
intelligent and virtuous people than the death-like tran- 
quillity which rests upon the tomb of liberty. 

We have now reviewed the principles and the mea- 
sures of the men who put in motion the wheels of our 
government. Their loves and their hates were honest 
in their origin ; their battles were bloodless ; and they 
gave to the world a living, practical proof, that a repub- 
lican system can be maintained, and is adapted to the 
nature, temper, virtue, intelligence, and progressive de- 
velopement of the American people. 

These parties have, however, fulfilled their mission. 
They have finished their pilgrimage, and have been 
gathered to " the house appointed for all living." When 
the peace of 1815 restored tranquillity to the world, the 
violence of partyism ceased in the United States. That 
peace terminated the strife between France and Great 
Britain, and consequently put an end to the disputes 
about our intercourse with those nations. This cause 
of party recrimination consequently ceased to act, and 



300 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the parties were left without the food upon which they 
had grown strong. Their position and relative strength 
were also much affected by the general change which 
had taken place in the condition of the civilized world, 
and also by the conduct of the Federalists and Demo- 
crats in the closing scenes of the universal hubbub of 
Europe. The opposition of the Federalists to the war 
of 1812 diminished that party, and increased the number 
of the Democrats. The domestic policy of the country 
had also, by the year 1815, become pretty well settled. 
The bank had become a democratic measure, the public 
debt no longer interested the new actors, who were creeping 
from the cradle to the public stage, and the Democrats 
now in power had ceased their opposition to a strong 
national government. There was consequently a disso- 
lution of parties. The objects for which they had con- 
tended no longer existed. The domestic policy was 
pretty well settled, and the foreign relations were no 
longer exciting. 

At the inauguration of President Monroe there was a 
general wish to administer the goverument by the best 
men that could be found, without regard to their former 
connexions with Federalists and Democrats. This era 
of " good feeling" marked an important point in our 
domestic history ; for it was the point of time when our 
republican system ceased to be an experiment, and 
became firmly established. During the eight years of 
President Monroe's administration, the measures which 
had formerly been the subjects of party agitation were 
seldom drawn into discussion. At the expiration of his 
term of office, in 1824, the election of president turned 
upon considerations rather personal than political. The 
candidates, Clay, and Crawford, and Adams, and 
Jackson, each had their personal friends ; and individual 



FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATS. 301 

preferences, combined with accidental connexions, di- 
vided the popular vote among them. 

From the election of Mr. Adams to the present time, 
other parties have been formed, and now exist ; but of 
the groundwork of their division, and measures of po- 
licy, it becomes us not now to speak. Their lights and 
shadows will be better observed by looking back upon 
them from the eminence of future time. Suffice it to 
say that the new parties, like the old, are altogether 
American ; stand on the common platform of republi- 
canism, and fire a common artillery upon the diminishing 
ranks of legitimacy. 

If we take a comprehensive survey of the two old 
parties, the Federalists and Democrats, in their origin 
and history, we find that the men who composed them, 
originated as well as re-echoed the common cry for li- 
berty which arose from the whole Caucasian race. From 
" the isles of Greece" to the pine forests of Norway, from 
the rivers of Russia to the muddy waters of the Missis- 
sippi, a kindred desire swelled the human breast. The 
white race demanded political liberty. In our own 
country, away from the monarchical institutions of Eu- 
rope, this reasonable demand received the approbation 
of all men. But here, as in all the doings of man and 
nature, diversity still appeared. The Federalists thought 
their political scheme the one which in our own country 
could combine freedom with good government. The 
Democrats thought that, in this western world, men 
might trust themselves with a more liberal constitution 
of government. 

When the terrible heavings and lashinjjs of the ele- 
ments of nations subsided, in A. D. 1815, all men in 
America felt a higher reverence for their democratic con- 
stitution, which had ridden upon the waves, and lived 
2c 



302 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

through the tempest, the hail, and the lightiihig, which 
had desolated the civilized world. 

May that same constitution never find worse enemies 
than the old Federalists and Democrats. Good old-fa- 
shioned patriots ! You wore your knee-buckles and 
wigs ; sometimes you quarrelled with each other, and 
sometimes you passed each other without touching those 
high-crowned hats. ]iut you all loved your country ; 
and all had hearts and souls that gladdened with joy 
when your eyes rested on the star-spangled banner, and 
your ears drank hi the music of revolutionary Yankee 
Doodle. 



LECTURE IX. 

THE WAR OF 1812. 

Governments have external as well ns internal duties to perform — 
Evidences of tiic ability of our republic to nianiif^o its oxtiriial 
alliiirs — This ability manifested in the causes, events, and circum- 
stances of the war of 1812 — I. Causes of the war: (1) Aggressions 
of Great Britain upon tlie eoinnicrce of the United States — Orders 
in council — Berlin and Milan decrees — Paper blockades — Injuries 
to American commerce — Defensive measures — Embargo — Its ope- 
ration — Non-Intercourse — Continental system of Napoleon — Mari- 
time system of England — Eifect of these aggressions upon the 
American people; (2) Right of search, and impressment — Tiiis 
right not claimed against nalioiuil armed vessels — Admission of the 
right to search neutral vessels for contraband goods, for enemy's 
property, and for men in the land and naval service — The right to 
search for sailors and seamen denied by the I'nited States — Evils 
of the system as practised by Great Britain; (I!) Instigation of the 
Northwest Indians against the United States — Attempts to disturb 
the Union — These evils result in the war of 1812 — II. (General course 
of events of the war: (1) The military part — Conducted all round 
the country — Results on the northwest — On the north — Along the 
Atlantic coast — On the southwest; (2) The naval part — Unexpected 
success of the navy — Moral power of this success — Preponderanco 
of naval triumphs in favour of the United States — III. Sources of 
the naval triumphs of the Americans — IV. The army less successful 
than the navy — Causes of its frequent failures — V. Adverse circum- 
stances in which the war was conducted — Some were accidental, 
others belong to the form of our government — Of the accidental 
embarrassments, the greatest was the condition of the navy — Of the 
embarrassments springing from our form of govermnent, the greatest 
was the party opposition — Cause of this opposition — Addresses — 
Conventions — Legislative resolutions — Hartford Convention — Ef- 
fects of the opposition — VI. Changes in Eiuopc prepare the way for 
peace — Treaty of Ghent — Results — Our republican system can 
bring the force of the nation to the defence of its rights. 



304 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

In the analysis of the principles and measures of the 
Federalists and Democrats, we have given you a vie^r 
of one practical dev elopement of our republican system. 
In the exhibition of the rise and decline of those old 
parties, we directed your attention to the internal opera- 
tion of our government: to many of the passions, and a 
few of the virtues which its management called into action. 

But a government has other cares beside those which 
arise from within. There are external relations springing 
from commerce, and from views of profit, pleasure, 
science, and other motives which demand the exercise 
of its wisdom. The Divine Being, who " made of one 
blood all nations of men," created them with such de- 
sires, and made such a dispersion of the fruits of the 
earth, and of the gems, and gold, and riches of nature, 
that distant people mingle with each other in their search 
for the luxuries and comforts of life. The frigid north 
seeks the exuberant regions of the tropics, the east visits 
the west, and the west the east. From this intercourse 
there arise foreign relations and connexions, and sym- 
pathies, and jealousies, and collisions of various kinds ; 
nations are brought into contact with nations, and go- 
vernments come to have duties to perform to each other. 
If a republic be the most desirable form of government, 
it should be able to do its share of these duties ; it should 
be competent to do justice to other nations, and to exact 
justice from them in all that concerns its citizens and 
itself 

How has our republic succeeded in maintaining this 
desirable character in its intercourse with the rest of the 
world ? Has it at all times done to others what justice 
required, and received from others what justice woidd 
have given ? Has it been able to observe this golden 
rule of national conduct ? 



THE WAR OF 1812. 305 

To answer such questions, and also to exhibit the 
progress of our repubhc, and its ability to maintain a 
proper position among other governments, we would 
have to examine its conduct when brought into the pre- 
sence of other nations. Such an examination would 
require an analysis of our foreign relations at different 
points of our history from the peace of independence 
to the present negotiations concerning Oregon. But 
instead of such an extensive investigation, let us attempt 
to arrive at the same result by a shorter process. Let 
us take a single prominent event in our history — the war 
of A. D. 1812 — and examine in what manner our re- 
public acquitted itself when brought into collision with 
its ancient friend and foe, Great Britain. We select this 
episode, or, if you please, this act in the drama of our 
history, because it exhibits many facts of interest re- 
specting our republican system, and was a manifestation 
of the strength and weakness of our government in the 
defence of its national rights. It revealed the force 
with which our republic can defend itself; it brought 
youth and age together; it brought the young demo- 
cracy of America into contact with the oldest and most 
powerful government of Europe. It demonstrated one 
great truth — it showed that under our republican system 
the force of the country can be rallied in defence of the 
nation's rights and of the nation's honour. 

It would be idle for us here to attempt a definition 
of a good political system. We have, in all that has 
hitherto been said, represented democracy — the govern- 
ment of the governed — as the best system — the best 
adapted to develope the powers and capacities of our 
nature, at least of Anglo-Saxon nature, both intellect- 
ually and morally, and, if you choose, politically. It is 
a part of man's moral discipline to take care of himself. 
2c* 



306 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Popular government disciplines, developes, and brings 
out in bold relief many of the highest qualities of our na- 
ture. Children are governed ; men govern themselves — 
sometimes. But if popular government — if democracy — 
be a desirable political system, it ought to be efficient 
not only in preserving tranquillity internally, but in pro- 
tecting itself externally. How has our republic suc- 
ceeded in regard to external protection .' Has it been 
efficient there ? Has it acted, and is it capable of acting 
in such a manner as to cause other governments to re- 
spect its national rights ? The war of 1812 was a trial ; 
an exhibition of its power in regard to protection against 
injustice from without. How did it succeed ? Let us see. 
We must remember, however, that the war of 1812 
was not the first exhibition of the belligerent or pug- 
nacious powers of our republic. In the administration 
of Washington, it had been compelled to send the 
several expeditions of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, 
against the Indians in the west. Those fierce aboriginal 
w^arriors, it was found, were not to be tamed by any 
influence possessed by our government except by the 
influence of soldiers. They had been marshalled, under 
British direction, against the United States in the war of 
the Revolution, and after it ceased they still continued 
hostilities. The power of the government was finally 
exerted to reduce them to submission ; a result which 
was accomplished with considerable difficulty. Again, 
in the administration of Mr. Jefferson, the Barbary 
Powers in the Mediterranean committed numerous de- 
predations upon the American commerce, and for several 
years were in open hostilities with our country. In this 
contest the little navy of the United States was brought 
into active employment, and furnished the means of as- 
serting the rights of our republic. This was a com- 



THE WAR OF 1812. 307 

mercial war, which was waged for the protection of our 
lawful trade, and waged against a people who had ex- 
acted tribute from the most powerful nations of Europe, 
as the price of peace. The Americans finally succeeded 
in forcing them to terms ; and a peace was concluded 
which gave security to our commerce in the Mediter- 
ranean. 

But it was not only against Indians and barbarians 
that the United States were compelled to defend their 
just rights. They were assailed by more powerful na- 
tions. A series of injuries were inflicted by Great Bri- 
tain, which, after long forbearance, produced the war of 
1812. Let us examine a little in detail its causes, its 
prominent events, and its results, and we will be able 
more properly to estimate the exhibition which it made 
of the ability of our republic to maintain its rights and 
its honour against aggressions from other nations. 

I. What were the causes of the war of 1812 ? Here 
we must refer to an idea which we presented when 
treating of the Revolution ; viz., that the causes of events 
affecting the welfare of nations generally operate through 
a long tract of time. In a monarchy, indeed, a lap-dog, 
or a bottle of wine, may be the occasion of war or peace ; 
but where important results are brought about by the 
conduct of large masses of men, there is usually a long 
space of time required. Contention between nations 
often commences like the little cloud which is no larger 
than a man's hand, but which, in time, spreads over the 
heavens, darkens the horizon, and finally the thunder, 
the lightning, and the rain discharge the gathering 
blackness. The causes of the war of 1812 were of that 
class which require time. They began to act almost 
simultaneously with the organization of our government, 



308 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and continued for nearly a quarter of a century before 
they produced their legitimate fruits. 

(1.) The first of these causes which we will mention 
is to be found in the aggressions which Great Britain 
made upon our commerce. The Revolution, as we have 
already seen, was in a great measure produced by the 
commercial restrictions which England attempted to im- 
pose upon the colonies. But the liberation of our 
country did not deliver us from the evils arising from 
this source. After the Revolution was completed by the 
organization of our government, complaints, also origi- 
nating in commercial injuries, were again heard all along 
the sea-coast of the United States, and were continued 
almost without interruption during the administrations of 
Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the first term of Ma- 
dison. These commercial injuries were, for the most 
part, connected with the wars of the French revolution — • 
wars which, for more than twenty years, desolated Eu- 
rope, and in which England and France were the leading 
hostile powers. 

The United States, from the very foundation of their 
government, steadily acted on the policy of remaining 
neutral in regard to the affairs of Europe. Their dis- 
tance — their geographical position — away from the pre- 
sence of the nations of the old world, rendered this 
neutral policy practicable, while their political youth 
rendered it exceedingly desirable. It was evident to the 
revolutionary fathers — those meek old men — that if the 
newly formed republic should launch upon the troubled 
ocean of European interests, passions, and prejudices, it 
would run the hazard of shipwreck. Hence they adopted 
the principle of " total abstinence" from all the quarrels 
of the European nations, and resolved to form " entan- 
gling alliances" with none of them. This was the creed 



THE WAR OF 1812. 309 

of Washington, in obedience to -which he resisted all the 
intrigues of the French, and refused to take part with 
that republic in the hostilities of Europe. His " Farewell 
Address" teems with paternal advice upon this subject. 
His successors, Adams and Jefferson and Madison, all 
entertained the same opinion, and all coincided with 
him, that the true interests of our republic required us to 
keep aloof from the contentions of Europe. But, when 
France and England engaged in the mortal strife, it 
became apparent that the principle and practice of neu- 
trality would subject, and did subject, the United States 
to many sore evils. Among the first of these evils were 
the British regulations which forbade the United States 
to carry grain or other provisions into France. In the 
military madness which seized upon the French people, 
agriculture was greatly neglected, and the United States 
found a profitable business in supplying them with pro- 
visions. England, however, knovv'ing that soldiers do 
not fight well before breakfast, conceived that starvation 
would be an effectual means of cooling the heroism of a 
Frenchman ; she therefore declared provisions contra- 
band of war, and consequently cut off' the United States 
from carrying this great item of American commerce to 
the French market. This restriction, though burdensome, 
could not be called new ; for, in the practice of former 
times, provisions had been occasionally declared contra- 
band, especially where their introduction would furnish 
an enemy with resources for prolonging a war. But 
not>Aithstanding this occasional prohibition, the English 
regulations forbidding their introduction into France 
produced great dissatisfaction in the United States — a 
feeling which was not diminished by the capture of a 
few American vessels for attempting, as it was alleged, 



310 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

to enter French ports contrary to tJic rule prescribed by 
Kiigland. 

One of the main objects of Mr. Jay's mission to Eng- 
land, when he negotiated his celebrated treaty, was to 
procure a rehixation of this rule. But he tailed in the 
attempt ; and provisions remained a forbidden iu-ticle of 
import into France. 

This was the commencement of those commercial 
restrictions whicli, during tlie European war, were im- 
posed by tlie belHgerent nations upon the neutral com- 
merce of the United States. It laid the foundation of 
that deep-rooted aversion to England which was more 
particularly exhibited by the democratic party, and 
wliich continued to increase as other acts of irritation 
were added by the British government. 

But the restriction upon provisions was not the only fo- 
reign regulation whicii injuriously affected our commerce. 
}]y the time that Napoleon became firmly seated on the 
French throne, the hostilities between France and England 
had grown to a rii)eness and bitterness whicli dilliiscd 
grievous evils over the rest of the world. In the earlier 
days of their struggle, their commerce, both between each 
other and their colonies, was carried on princij)ally in 
American ships aiul by American merchants. The New 
Enirlander carried I'rench merchandise from France to the 
rest of the world, and ]3ritish merchandise from England to 
French ports. In brief, the United Slates monopolized 
tlie carrying-trade of Furope. While our seamen were 
reaping this gohU'ii harvest, the sky became gradually 
overcast. The hostile s])irit of the two great belligerents 
began to extend itself in a new and extraordinary manner. 
The battle of Trafalgar, in I80(),had almost annihilated the 
naval power of France ; and Great Britain being left the 
mistress of the ocean, those two nations entered upon 



THE WAR OF 1812. 311 

a singular system of warfare — a warfare which extended 
itself to all the trailic of the world, and involved in the 
general conflagration every neutral nation engaged in 
commerce. To humble England, Napoleon commenced 
his continental system, which had for its object the ex- 
clusion of British commerce from the continent of 
Europe, and by which he aimed a blow at the vhal point 
of his adversaries' power and wealth. On tlie contrary, 
England commenced a maritime system, which had for 
its object the total destruction of all commerce with 
France, of every kind and description. These two systems 
had now in fact become the only means by which the 
one nation could annoy the other. For England ruled 
all on the ocean, and France all on the continent; on 
its own element each seemed unconquerable, and neither 
could approach the other. 

The first movement in this new warfare was the an- 
nouncement from Great Britain, in A. D. 1806, that she 
prohibited neutrals from all trade with her enemies in 
time of war which they had not enjoyed in time of peace. 
The immediate effect of this regulation was to cut off the 
United States from trading between one port and another 
of France or her allies, and also between France and 
her colonies — such domestic commerce not being usually 
allowed to a neutral in time of peace. 

Soon after this, Great Britain made a still more 
stringent regulation, and by orders in council prohibited 
neutrals from entering any port from Brest to Hamburg. 
This cut off the United States from the northern French 
trade. Napoleon, who was then crushing Prussia to the 
dust, and had carried his arms to its capital, Berlin, re- 
taliated these commercial measures by declaring the 
British islands in a state of blockade. Tliis declaration, 
called tlie Berlin decree, prohibited all neutral ships, 



312 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

under penalty of confiscation, from entering a British 
port without a certificate of permission from French 
authorities. The effect of this regulation, if Napoleon 
had possessed ships to enforce it, would have been to 
exclude the United States from English ports except 
by permission of France. In retaliation of the Berlin 
decree. Great Britain issued other orders in council, by 
which the whole coast of France, and all the French 
ports, were declared in a state of blockade. The United 
States, consequently, were prohibited from entering any 
French port without the permission of Great Britain. 
The same orders directed neutrals, under penalty of con- 
fiscation, to enter a British port, 'pay a duty there, and 
sail with British papers. This last regulation would, if 
carried into effect, render England the centre of all the 
trade of the world ; for, under it, an American ship could 
not go to the West Indies without crossing the Atlantic 
to get permission ; and when it arrived in the West In- 
dies it would again have to go to England for permission 
to return to the United States. Such a detour — such a 
travelling round Robin Hood's barn to the tune of " God 
save the king," was rather an imposition on the good 
nature of an American citizen. But this was not all. 
lie had to pay a heavy duty for the privilege of touching 
at the British port. 

These orders in council were immediately followed 
by the Milan decree, on the part of Napoleon. This 
decree, bearing the name of the place where it was 
dated, prohibited all trade whatever with Great Britain ; 
declared that a vessel making a voyage to England 
should be lawful prize ; and that a merchant-ship wliich 
submitted to be searched by an English ship, or entered 
an English port, was denationalized, outlawed, and 
might be seized by French cruisers wherever found. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 313 

By these decrees and orders the commerce of the 
United States became the sport of these two nations. 
If American merchants attempted to trade to France 
the EngUsh cruisers caught them, and if they attempted 
to trade to England they were violating the decrees of 
Napoleon. If they obtained from France permission to 
trade to England, these French papers contaminated the 
ship and cargo, and the whole was forfeited. If they 
obtained from Britain permission to trade to French 
ports, this fact condemned them under the Berlin and 
Milan decrees. The United States were thus hawked at 
from England, and huzzarded at from France, and their 
commerce was cut to pieces ; for it was plainly impos- 
sible to comply with such conflicting and destructive re- 
quisitions. 

We had much cause to complain of France as well 
as of Great Britain ; but the latter, having the superiority 
at sea, was able to do us most harm. Having prohibited 
us from enterhig a French port, the prohibition excluded 
us from nearly the whole continent of Europe ; for almost 
every corner of the continent was, in those times, under 
the authority of the French. 

In the execution of her orders in council, there was 
a practical and unmitigated evil which bore heavily on 
the United States. Great Britain began to capture Ame- 
rican ships if they attempted to enter a French port. 
By-and-by she began to take them anywhere upon the 
ocean if they were destined to a port which she had de- 
clared in a state of blockade, even though the owners 
of the vessels and the government of the United States 
itself might be ignorant of the pretended blockade. 
By-and-by other orders in council made a paper blockade 
of the whole world. She then seized our ships wherever 
they were to be found — even on our own coasts — and 
2d . 



314 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

compelled all our commerce to be carried through her 
ports, and according to her directions. 

What did the United States oppose to all these orders, 
decrees, and pretensions ? Did their old jurists put on 
tlieir spectacles and read to England a chapter from the 
law of nations? The law of nations had become a 
nullity in the unnatural strife. Did they attempt to prove 
by learned argument that a blockade must be maintained 
by a suitable force of ships before the blockaded port ? 
That was old, worn-out, superannuated law, and not the 
law which governed England and France in their struggle 
to ruin each other. Failing to make an impression by 
reading chapters from the law of nations, or by arguing 
and remonsti'ating, our government had recourse to 
more effective defensive measures. In 1807 it laid an 
embargo — prohibited our ships from leaving our ports — 
called home those that were abroad, and annihilated our 
commerce to save it from Great Britain and France. 
Our ships, if they ventured out at all, crept along the 
coast from one port to another. 

How did the embargo operate ? In regard to the 
United States, it cut them off from the few remaining 
markets which had not been closed by British orders and 
French decrees ; it bore heavily on the agricultural in- 
terests of the country by destroying the exportation of 
grain ; it was ruinous to merchants and ship-owners ; it 
benefited the manufacturers by excluding all foreign mer- 
chandise ; but it preserved a great amount of floating 
property by withdrawing it from the grasp of English and 
French pirates. In regard to France and England, its 
operation was severe ; but not sufficiently severe to pro- 
cure a redress of the grievances. It was indeed in- 
tended as a method of retaliation as well as of self-de- 
fence ; but Great Britain having the mastery of the ocean, 



THE WAR OF 1812. 315 

found a compensation for the loss of our commerce. 
For, from the East Indies, from Egypt, from South 
America, from the St. Lawrence, and from the Baltic, 
she obtained cotton, tobacco, and grain, though some 
of them were at increased prices. These resources freed 
her in a great measure from the pressure of the embargo. 
The hope of our government was that it would induce 
those two belligerents to cease their injuries to our com- 
merce ; but this hope was not realized. The peculiar 
organization of our republic, and the temper of the peo- 
ple, were also unfavourable to such a result. In New 
England the embargo was exceedingly unpopular, and 
strenuously resisted by the party opposed to the admi- 
nistration. It certainly pressed with great severity. All 
parties in our country began to think open war prefer- 
able to such a restrictive system; and in A. D. 1809, it 
was repealed, and a system of non-intercourse with 
France and Great Britain adopted. Earnest but un- 
availing efforts were at the same time made by our go- 
vernment to procure a modification of the French and 
English decrees and orders. Napoleon had announced 
that his Berlin and Milan decrees were to be repealed 
whenever the British orders in council were recalled ; 
and was desirous to repeal them especially in respect to 
the United States, provided England would also make a 
similar exception in our favour. But all the attempts of 
the United States in the matter failed. Under one pre- 
text and another, Great Britain refused to repeal or mo- 
dify her orders in council ; and other subjects of irrita- 
tion between the two governments continued to increase. 
Under these commercial annoyances, the United 
States moved on from 1807 to 1812, and suffered, du- 
ring these five years, the injuries which naturally flowed 
from tliis oppressive system. Their ports and harbours 



316 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

were watched by British ships ; their commerce inter- 
cepted, and their seamen seized. The blockade of 
ahnost the whole world rendered the ships from the 
United States lawful prize. England, indeed, seemed to 
be aiming at a monopoly of the commerce of all nations. 
This was in fact the very point to which was directed 
the main power of the contest between her and France ; 
and while the latter was systematically at work to break 
down the maritime superiority of England, she herself 
w^as labouring to extend it over all the world, and de- 
vising means to gather from every ocean and sea new 
commercial energy. Nor did there appear any prospect 
of bringing these oppressions to an end. Napoleon and 
his continental system seemed all-powerful on land, and 
England and her maritime system all-powerful on the 
ocean. Each nation was victorious on its proper ele- 
ment ; neither could attack the other except by paper 
blockades, and through the mutual destruction of neutral 
commerce. 

Through all these difficulties the United States were 
desirous of peace. They offered to the belligerents, 
that if " either would revoke its hostile decrees, and the 
other should refuse, we would forbid all intercourse with 
that other. France finally accepted the offer."* Great 
Britain refused till her acquiescence was unheard in the 
tumult of war. 

During the five years of these decrees, orders, and 
outrages, about one thousand American vessels were 
seized by British cruisers, and condemned as lawful 
prize — condemned for violating constructive blockades 
and disobeying British orders. There seemed to be no 
virtue in permitting the war to be thus all upon one side, 

* Jefferson's Correspondence. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 317 

and since England would be hostile to the United States, 
the United States finally resolved that they too would 
carry on war with England. Indeed, after the declara- 
tion of war in 1812, they lost annually fewer merchant- 
vesssels than tliey had lost before the war commenced. 

But we will not pursue this cause of the war any 
farther. We have noticed it somewhat in detail, because 
it exhibits the position which our republic held in the 
presence of two powerful belligerent nations ; and, also, 
because it shows the points of exposure, in defence of 
which the United States may be drawn away from the 
position of neutrality, and become mixed up in the 
uproar of European strife. 

(2.) The next cause of the war was closely allied to 
the one first mentioned, and is to be found in the practice 
pursued by Great Britain, of searching the ships and im- 
pressing the sailors and seamen of the United States. I 
say that this cause of the war is closely connected with 
the commercial injuries which have just been detailed ; 
for it originated in the same contest, and was part of the 
same system of means by which England sought to es- 
tablish her maritime system. But the right of search — 
what was it ? When did it begin ? What was the 
practice under it ? What the ground of opposition to it ? 
On what was it founded ? How came Great Britain to 
demand it ? How did it lead to the war ? In answer 
to all such questions we observe, in the first place, that 
Great Britain did not claim the rio-ht of searching our 
national vessels. Ships-of-war have, in all nations and 
at all times, been exempt from the visitation and search 
of other nations. The deck of a man-of-war is to be 
trodden by her own crew alone, or by those who come 
in friendship or in victory. Great Britain, in general, 
respected this universal custom, and never claimed the 
2d* 



318 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

right of searching our national ships. Hence the enormity 
of the outrage, when, in A. D. 1807, the British ship-of- 
war, the Leopard, demanded permission to take from our 
national ship, the Chesapeake, three or four men, on the 
allegation that they were British subjects. The refusal to 
comply with the demand was followed by the well known 
attack from the Leopard — an outrage which inflamed 
the combustible matter of our republic — and increased 
its animosity towards Britain. When remonstrances 
were made to England upon the subject, that government 
in words expressly disavowed the act, and even with 
derision disclaimed all pretensions of searching our na- 
tional vessels. 

But we may observe, in the second place, that nations 
in time of war usually claim and exercise the right to 
search the merchant-vessels of a neutral nation for goods, 
which are contraband of war, and for merchandise 
belonging to the enemy. Suppose France and England 
at war (no very violent supposition), if the United States 
be neutral, British national ships claim the right to ex- 
amine any American merchant-vessel going to France, 
in order to ascertain that she is not carrying munitions 
of war, or any other contraband articles. French national 
ships may take a similar liberty with a neutral merchant- 
vessel going to Britain. The European nations, when 
at war, have generally claimed and exercised this right, 
because it is the highest security they can have that no 
fraud is practised upon them by neutrals. A similar 
search has generally been made, in time of war, for mer- 
chandise belonging to the enemies of the government 
whose ships make the search. By the modern rules of 
warfare, an enemy's private property on land is respected, 
while his private property at sea is seized wherever found. 
Thus, when Great Britain and France were at war, mer- 



THE WAR OF 1812. 319 

chandise at sea, belonging to the subjects of either go- 
vernment, was understood to be legitimate prize whenever 
captured. If such merchandise were put on board of a 
neutral vessel, it might be pursued there, the neutral 
vessel searched, and the property taken. 

The Law of nations — a phrase which is employed to 
designate those rules of national intercourse, which, like 
the rules of politeness, have grown up by custom, and 
which, in the absence of express regulations, have ac- 
quired authority from general consent and long practice — 
the law of nations has usually been understood to recog- 
nise the right of belligerents to search neutral vessels for 
contraband goods, and for merchandise belonging to an 
enemy. Neutrals have, indeed, sometimes resisted the 
exercise of this right. Russia, Prussia, Denmark, and 
Sweden, in A. D. 1780, and again in A. D. 1801, com- 
bined together, and endeavoured to establish the rule, 
that " free ships make free goods," by which they meant 
that the flag of a neutral nation should protect its ships 
from search, and be a sufficient guarantee that they car- 
ried neither contraband articles nor an enemy's property. 
Those Baltic Powers armed to enforce this rule. Eng- 
land, however, regarded it as an attempt to change a 
long-established practice, and engraft, by force, a new 
principle into the law of nations. She resisted it, and 
the attempt failed. In European diplomacy, treaty stipu- 
lations have sometimes been adopted between particular 
nations, by which they agreed that, as between them- 
selves, "free ships make free goods." But such a rule 
exists only by particular agreement, not by general or 
national law. 

The United States, in the early days of the republic, 
were inclined to adopt the language of the Baltic Powers, 
and to contend that their merchant- vessels should be 



320 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

exempt from search for contraband articles and enemy's 
property. But by Jay's treaty in 1794, they fairly aban- 
doned this ground. In that important international do- 
cument, they yielded the principle, that <' free ships 
make free goods," and provided a mode of redress for 
injuries that might be committed in making the search. 
After the ratification of this treaty, the people of the 
United States occasionally expressed a wish that the flag 
should protect the ship ; but practically they acquiesced 
in the rule that the ships of nations at war may visit and 
search our merchant-vessels for contraband articles, and 
for the property of an enemy. 

Again, the United States admitted that their merchant- 
vessels might be searched for men belonging to the re- 
gular land or naval force of the nation making the search. 

But if the United States admitted that Great Britain 
might search their merchant- vessels for contraband goods, 
for enemy's property, and for men belonging to her owti 
army or navy, they did not admit that a similar search 
should be made for British subjects. Here was the 
point of all the difficulty. England claimed the right 
to look for her subjects on our merchant-vessels, or 
wherever else she could find them. The old feudal 
doctrine of perpetual, unceasing allegiance, here again 
showed its head, and came into the presence of a young 
nation who never knew it. The United States were en- 
tirely willing that England should have her sailors and 
subjects, but they were not willing that she should search 
for them in American merchant-vessels. This privilege 
might, indeed, have been granted, or at least the practice 
might have been tolerated, had not Great Britain taken 
American citizens as well as British subjects. Here lay 
the practical part of the evil. An English ship would 
board an American vessel, muster the crew, and carry 



THE WAR OF 1812. 321 

away as many of them as the searching officer chose. 
What was the redress? A circuitous negotiation be- 
tween the two governments, ending in words or paper 
billets. This process of searching and impressing men 
from American vessels began with the wars of the French 
Revolution in A. D. 1792, and continued through all 
tlie mortal strife of twenty years between England and 
France. The United States reclaimed with much energy 
against it ; but the voice of their protests was unheard 
and ineffectual in the uproar and convulsions that rocked 
Europe on its foundations. 

In A. D. 1807, the British government went a step 
farther, and issued its proclamations calling home all its 
seamen who were in foreign service, and warning all its 
native born subjects that naturalization by foreign nations 
would not protect them from the crime of treason should 
they be found fighting against England. It may readily 
be supposed that such high-sounding pretensions created 
much excitement in the United States, where many Bri- 
tish born subjects had long been naturalized, and resided 
as citizens of the new republic. They had thought 
themselves Americans, but w^ere suddenly awaked from 
their slumbers by the information that, according to the 
English creed of political perseverence, they had never 
fallen from the grace of being Britons. 

The manner in which Great Britain acted upon these 
pre^tensions speedily created great discontent in the 
United States. Several thousand American seamen were 
impressed from our merchant-ships, sent into the Eng- 
lish navy, and compelled to fight the French. When 
the war of 1812 was declared, the number of these im- 
pressed Americans who were imprisoned for refusing to 
fight against their country, amounted to more than two 
thousand. For several years American citizens could 



322 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

not venture out upon the ocean without the probabihty 
of being kidnapped by British ships ; and, as an ex- 
ample of the practical operation of the system, two 
nephews of General Washington, when returning from 
Europe, were seized for British subjects, and sent as 
seamen to serve on board a man-of-war. The common 
language and common orighi of the two nations in- 
creased the probabilities of committing such injuries, 
even where great caution and honest judgment were ex- 
ercised. But in the irritations which for years gradually 
increased between them, little care and less justice was 
exercised by British officers in removing seamen from 
American vessels. England seemed desirous, as already 
observed, to establish her maritime system^ — to maintain 
the empire of the ocean, and to monopolize the com- 
merce of the world. To accomplish such an end, seamen 
were the necessary agents, and it was to increase their 
number that many American citizens were carried into 
the royal navy. 

Negotiation was tried upon this subject, but it failed ; 
remonstrances were tried, and they too failed ; threats 
of war were tried, and resulted in notliing; and finally, 
war itself commenced. 

(3.) Another cause of the war of 1812 is found in 
the aggressions made upon the United States in the west 
and northwest by the Indians, and which the American 
people believed to be encouraged and planned by Bri- 
tish agents. England had a valuable interest in the fur- 
trade on the northwest of our country — an interest which 
could be preserved only by retarding or preventing the 
settlement of the territories belonging to the United States 
in that direction. Hence, from the commencement of 
the Revolution she had subsidized the Indians in that 
region, and em^oloyed them in such a way as to promote 



THE WAR OF 1812. 323 

and preserve this trade. When the difficulties between 
the two governments, which grew out of the commercial 
restrictions and the seizure of American seamen, had 
rendered a war exceedingly probable, these Indians, led 
on by the renowned Tecumseh, began their depredations 
upon the settlements of the United States. In 1810, they 
exhibited symptoms of decided hostility, and in 1811, 
the year before the declaration of war. General Harrison 
fought them at Tippecanoe. These hostilities were, at 
the time, believed to be the work of England, and the 
exasperation from this source made the western inha- 
bitants of the United States loud in their demands for an 
open war with Great Britain. 

Great indignation was also excited in the United 
States by the attempt through secret agents to detach 
New England from the Union. The embargo, as has 
been mentioned, pressed severely on the northern states ; 
and many who had lost heavily by its imposition, began 
to compare the value of the Union with the commercial 
evils under which they were suffering. Agents from 
Canada endeavoured to foment this discontent, and 
promised the aid of Great Britain to make good the se- 
paration from the Union. Their intrigues were, how- 
ever, not favoured by the Yankees ; they came to the 
knowledge of the government, and increased the feelings 
of hostility towards Great Britain. Collisions also had 
occurred off the coast of the United States between 
American and English ships. The first of these, the 
affair between the Leopard and Chesapeake, which has 
already been adverted to, was not forgotten. In 1811 a 
similar rencontre occurred between the United States 
frigate President and the British sloop-of-war Little 
Belt. These immediate sources of irritation, added to 
the grievances already mentioned of a more extensive 



324 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and general character, disposed the United States to 
resort to the hist argument of nations; and, in 1812, 
Congress passed an act declaring war. The war had in 
fact, for several years, existed on the part of Great Bri- 
tain against the United States, and the declaration of 
Congress, and the proclamation of the president, were 
rather official annoiincements of an existing war than the 
commencement of a new one. 

From this summary review of the causes which again 
brought the United States into collision with England, 
we perceive that, like the causes of the Revolution, they 
mainly centered in commercial matters. The seizure 
of American commerce, and the impressment of seamen, 
laid the foundations of the war ; a war which might not 
have occurred had the battle of Trafalgar never been 
fought. That sea-fight annDiilated the naval power of 
France, and Great Britain was left the mistress of the 
ocean. The continental system of Napoleon, and the 
maritime system of England, were then substituted for 
the usual naval operations ; and, in the artillery of im- 
perial decrees, orders in council, and paper blockades, 
by which the battle between these two systems was 
fought, the commerce of the United States and all their 
ocean rights became the sport and prey of Great Britain. 
But the same benign Providence which thus links to- 
gether the great chain of human affairs, also prepares 
the means by which the apparent evils of a whole series 
of events are brought to result in ultimate good. The 
energy and recklessness with which England pursued 
her maritime system produced the war between her and 
the United States — a war which was a new trial for our 
republican system, and which, with many evils in its 
train, relieved the nation from a protracted series of 
commercial oppressions. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 325 

II. Let us next take a general survey of the course 
of events during the war, that we may see how our re- 
public defended its rights, and what proof it gave of 
ability to maintain itself against the force of the Old 
World. I do not mean to give a detail of campaigns 
and naval battles, of sieges and Indian massacres ; all 
that is now allowed us is an outline — a summary view — 
a mere glimpse of the prominent features and charac- 
teristics of the contest. 

(1.) Look first at the military part — the army opera- 
tions ; what was done there ? Along the whole Atlantic 
coast, the United States, as in the days of die Revolution, 
were exposed to invasions from British troops ; the 
northern border presented facilities for incursions from 
Canada ; the northwestern frontier lay open to attacks 
from the Indians — those subsidized tomaliawks of Bri- 
tain — while on the southwest the Mississippi opened an 
entrance for hostile troops, and southern savages stood 
ready to aid them. Thus the entire circuit of the United 
States, from Boston round to Boston again, exposed 
points of attacic to a })owerful, vigilant, and active 
enemy ; and the actual military operations were as ex- 
tensively diffused as the points of attack. They were 
in fact conducted all round the country, and sometimes 
in it. On the northwest the military operations were 
aggressive, and aggressive for a double reason. Expe- 
rience had demonstrated that ihe best mode to wage war 
against Indians was to attack them, to carry the war 
into their own territories. It was also supposed that 
many advantages would be gained by invading Canada. 
These two views, to attack the Indians, and to enter 
Canada on the northwest, produced active aggressive 
hostilities in that region. The results of these attempts 
were not so favourable to tlie United States as had been 
2e 



326 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

anticipated — no very extraordinary fact in military mat- 
ters. The American forces did invade Canada. General 
Hull did not, however, make a very glorious commence- 
ment in that quarter ; but his disasters were in a measure 
repaired by Harrison and his worthy associates ; and a 
continued series of military operations were conducted 
in that region during the war. The battles of the Thames 
and others were alike creditable to our arms and advan- 
tageous to the government. 

The inhabitants of all the w^estern region of the United 
States had been unanimous and loud in their demands 
for the war ; and when it was declared, Ohio and Ken- 
tucky entered upon the contest, with an energy which 
originated equally in native bravery, and in a remem- 
brance of the Indian outrages which were laid to the 
account of Great Britain. Their power was mainly 
directed to the northwest. That disasters sometimes 
occurred in that region, is a fact to be set down neither 
to the account of our form of government nor to the 
want of valour in the men who were there eno-afred. 

Beside the northwest, the whole Canada line was the 
scene of active hostilities ; and invasions were made by 
the Americans upon the British side of the river, and by 
the British upon the American side. The battles of 
Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, fought in Canada, re- 
sulted favourably to the American arms, and were well- 
fought engagements. But notwithstanding these and 
other advantages, the attempts of the Americans to in- 
vade Canada were, in the main, unsuccessful ; while the 
attempts of the British in that quarter to penetrate into 
the American territory were still more unsuccessful. 

Along the Atlantic the British forces made frequent 
descents, committed depredations in the Chesapeake 
bay and its tributaries, sacked the city of Washington, 



THE WAR OF 1812.i 327 

burned towns, and fought the battle of Baltimore. The 
coast from the mouth of the Chesapeake to Rhode 
Island was declared to be in a state of blockade ; and 
many outrages, that are not usual in war between civil- 
ized nations, were committed upon the persons and pri- 
vate property of American citizens. 

It is curious to observe the change of opinion, or at 
least of conduct, which a change of position sometimes 
introduces among men. English writers, previously to 
the American war, had denounced Napoleon as the 
great beast, the scourge of the world, and the violater 
of all law human and divine. But Napoleon had been 
in every capital on the continent of Europe with his 
armies, and in none of them — Moscow with its Kremlin 
excepted — had he wantonly destroyed property. In 
Berlin, in Vienna, in Madrid, and in other cities, he 
committed no outrages on public or private buildings. 
But when the English armies invaded the coasts of the 
United States, they burned the towns ; when they en- 
tered Washington City, they destroyed the public pro- 
perty. Who blew up the Kremlin? Who burnt the 
capitol of the United States? Who seized and exe- 
cuted the Duke d'Enghien? Who permitted the In- 
dians to massacre American prisoners at Frenchtown ? 
Is it true that Omar, the Saracen, burnt that great library 
in Egypt? Is it true that Chihoangti committed to the 
flames the books of China, with their crooked letters and 
perpendicular lines ? Who burnt the library of Congress 
at Washington City ? 

But let us leave the catechism and go on with the 
war. Along the Atlantic coast the military operations 
on the part of the Americans were, for the most part, 
defensive, and were at first conducted with less vigour 
than on the north and the south. The fires of the capitol 



328 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

finally sent their heat through the adjacent states ; and 
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania hastened to the 
rescue. But on the south and southwest the war was 
waged with an ardour that was alike creditable and pro- 
ductive of success. The Indians in that region had 
been instigated by British emissaries to take up arms ; 
and the Creeks and Seminoles commenced hostilities. 
These were at that time powerful tribes. They were, 
however, promptly met ; and the fields of Talladega, 
Tohopeka, and Emuckfaw proved their valour, but de- 
stroyed their warriors. In the same region the British 
made their last and most vigorous efforts to invade the 
territory of the United States. The Mississippi offered 
them an avenue deep into the heart of the western 
country. But their defeat at Orleans proved that an in- 
vading army, though favoured by navigable rivers, and 
opposed only by a citizen soldiery, must ever encounter 
a most determined resistance in the United States. Upon 
the first alarm of a British force at the mouth of the 
Mississippi, the whole southwest prepared to oppose 
them. Tennessee alone sent one-third of her whole 
enrolled militia. Fortunately, the victory of Orleans 
relieved the south ; and the treaty of peace put an end 
to hostilities. 

Thus the military operations of the war w^ere con- 
ducted round the entire circuit of the country. The 
northwest, the Canada line, the Atlantic coast, the south, 
and the southwest, all heard the connonade. During 
the Revolution, the colonies had a border warfare with 
the Indians, who made aggressions from the north and 
west. Hostilities also were conducted through the whole 
country from Massachusetts to Georgia ; and military 
operations were diffused in little fragmentary parcels. 
A similar diffusion took place in the war of 1812 : 



THE WAR OF 1812. 329 

places widely separated in geographical position were 
attacked, and no very powerful concentration of troops 
was effected at any one point. 

The north, the east, and the south, each had its bat- 
tles ; and the forces of the United States were scattered 
round the whole country. This diffusive warfare was a 
circumstance in favour of our country. In the Revolu- 
tion it was required by the scattered condition of the 
population ; and in the war of 1812 it was again adopted 
by the British, though without the reasons which ren- 
dered it necessary in 1776. The geogiaphical position 
of our republic exposes it to this desultory warfare ; and 
should it ever again come in collision with Great Bri- 
tain, that nation with its immense naval power may again 
undertake military operations on the north, on the east, 
and on the south of the United States, unless by some 
freak of fortune the scene of hostilities should be on the 
other side of the Atlantic. The actual western border 
of our country will, however, soon extend to the Pacific. 
It is there now in name, and in a few years it will be 
there in reality. The limits — the exposed attackable 
limits of the United States — will thus be vastly extended 
beyond what they were in previous wars. But the olives 
of peace will, it is hoped, for long ages to come, expand 
their green leaves round this extensive circuit. 

(2.) Look next at the naval operations of the war; 
what was done on the ocean and on the lakes ? Here a 
series of successful events occurred which surprised alike 
Great Britain and the United States. On the northern 
lakes an American naval force was brought to co-ope- 
rate with the army, and rendered much efficient and 
brilliant service to the country. On Lake Erie, on Lake 
Ontario, and on Lake Champlain, the naval operations 
were highly successful. The possession of Canada gave 
2e* 



330 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the British facilities for obtaining the command of the 
lakes, where their superiority would have been a great 
annoyance to the United States. But great diligence 
was employed by our government to construct vessels 
of war upon those waters, and the results justified the 
exertions. On Lake Erie a little fleet was equipped ; 
and soon the despatch arrived at the capitol, "We have 
met the enemy and.they are ours." On Lake Champlain 
a naval battle, involving most important consequences 
to our republic, resulted in another victory. We say 
that this battle involved important consequences ; for it 
defeated the plan which the British had formed for dis- 
membering the Union. It was known that in New Eng- 
land much opposition to the war existed, and the British 
hoped that this state of feeling could be turned to good 
account. They accordingly planned a campaign whose 
main object was to proceed by way of Lake Champlain 
to the Hudson, and then down that river to New York ; 
the design being to cut off the New England states from 
communication with the rest of the Union, and induce 
them to make a separate peace. This was substantially 
the plan adopted in the Revolution, when Burgoyne was 
sent down Lake Champlain witli instructions to proceed 
to New York ; but Saratoga proved as fatal to the scheme 
in 1777 as Plattsburg did in 1814. In this last attempt 
our little fleet of eighty-six guns destroyed and captured 
the English squadron of ninety-five guns ; the British 
land forces in consequence ran away ; and the plan of 
dividing the Union, and making a separate peace with 
New England, was abandoned. Perhaps no plan was 
better devised, either in the Revolution or in the late 
war, than this of intersecting the countiy from Canada 
byway of the valley of the Hudson. Its success would, 
in either war, have greatly embarrassed the Americans. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 331 

But it was on the Atlantic that the single ships of the 
United States performed the most illustrious deeds. The 
existence of the war had hardly been announced when 
the American frigate Essex was attacked by the British 
sloop-of-war the Alert. In a few minutes the latter 
vessel was captured ; and hers was the first British flag 
that was sent to Washington City to tell of that ocean 
career on which the American navy was entering. In 
the same summer (A. D. 1812) occurred the naval ac- 
tions in which the Constitution captured the British ships 
the Guerriere and Java ; and the Macedonian was taken 
by the ship United States. These successful achieve- 
ments seemed to open a new field for American ambi- 
tion, and produced an extraordinary sensation both in 
our own country and in Europe. In the United States 
they were received with exultation, and in Britain with 
amazement, while on the continent they opened new 
prospects to the fighting nations. They had a moral 
eflfect, which gave them an importance far transcending 
their value as mere belligerent operations. Their moral 
effect resulted from the circumstances of the nations then 
at war. Great Britain had for years ruled the ocean ; 
the battle of Trafalgar had annihilated the last remnant 
of naval opposition from France and Spain ; Napoleon 
with all his resources made little progress in organizing 
a navy ; Holland had vanished from the catalogue of 
nations ; Denmark and the Baltic Powers were neutral- 
ized or associated with Great Britain ; English ships 
swept the ocean ; and it seemed as natural for Britain to 
conquer at sea, as for Napoleon to be triumphant on land. 
In this state of the maritime world, the success of the 
American navy was hailed by the enemies of Great Bri- 
tain as a new era in modern warfare. They saw a young 
power springing from the Western Continent, and trun- 



332 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ming its wings for a flight upon the ocean — a power which 
would speedily divide the sovereignty of the seas with 
their former mistress — a power which threatened to de- 
stroy the maritime system in which England had been 
engaged. These circumstances and prospects gave to 
the naval success of the Americans a value and an im- 
portance which Great Britain was anxious to destroy. 

At the commencement of the war the navy was unpo- 
pular — very unpopular. Many hard names had been 
applied to it. But the brilliant triumphs which it gained 
speedily brought it into good repute ; and during the two 
years and a half of the war, it continued to maintain its 
good name. Some disasters, indeed, occurred ; as the 
loss of the Chesapeake and Essex ; but from the com- 
mencement of the war to its close, the navy showed itself 
truly the right arm of our national defence. Its success 
compensated the United States for sore disasters else- 
where. If General Hull surrendered an American army 
on the northwest, Commodore Hull captured the Guer- 
riere, and repaired on water the evil which his namesake 
had done on land. If the troops of the United States 
were defeated at the scrambling battle of Frenchtown, 
the American Hornet stung the British birds the Pea- 
cock and the Epervier,* and adorned our arms with new 
feathers. If Baltimore and Orleans were saved by the 
valour and good conduct of our land forces, our flag 
gained unexpected triumphs on the ocean. Nor was it • 
only in a few isolated combats that these triumphs were 
obtained. There is such a fact as a general current of 
success — a movement of affairs which, in their general 
tenor and bearing, have a preponderance in a particular 
direction. Thus, the general current of events in the 
naval contests between France and England has ex- 

* A hawk. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 



333 



hibited a pretty uniform preponderance in favour of the 
latter. So also in the presidential elections in the United 
States ; there is occasionally a general movement, or 
tendency, or current — call it by what name you will — ■ 
which seems sometimes to pervade the whole country, 
and draws "most souls" a particular way. A similar 
fact was observable in the naval operations of the United 
States during this war ; there was a general current of 
success which pervaded them. On Lake Erie, on Lake 
Champlain, and along the water boundary on the north, 
the American navy was victorious. On the Atlantic 
also, both along the coast and far out upon the ocean, it 
was in general successful. A statement of " facts and 
figures" will be.st show the relative number of the naval 
victories of the two nations. Let us write down the 
names of the American vessels, and the names of the 
British vessels they captured in battle, setting the one 
over against the other, and the account will stand as 
follows : 



AMERICAN VESSELS. 






BRITISH VESSELS, 


The Essex .... 


. captured the . . 


. . Alert. 




Constitution . . . 


it (i 




Guerriere. 




Wasp .... 


n <c 




Frolic. 




United States . 


11 It 




Macedonian. 




Constitution . , 


tf li 




Java. 




Hornet .... 


1< il 




Peacock. 




Enterprise . . 


. <( <l 




Boxer. 




Peacock . . . 


(< l< 




Epervier. 




Wasp .... 


(I (1 




Reindeer. 




Wasp .... 


It II 




Avon. 




Constitution . . 


II II 


Cyane and 
Levant. 




Hornet 


l( II 


. . Penguin. 




U. S. Squadron, on 
Lake Eric, 


( II It 


British Squadron. 


II 


U. S. Squadron, on 
Lake Champlain, 


It It 


Bri 


libh Squadron. 



334 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

If we write down the victories of the British vessels, 
and the American vessels they captured in battle, the 
account will stand as follows : 

BRITISH VESSELS. AMERICAN VESSELS. 



The Shannon .... captured the .... Chesapeake. 
" Phcebe and 
Cherub 



Essex. 



Here ends the catalogue of the naval defeats of the 
Americans. The other losses they experienced were in 
the capture of the Argus, the Wasp, the President, and 
the Nautilus, which were at different times surrendered 
to a British squadron, or to a greatly superior force ; 
their loss being neither regarded as victories by the Bri- 
tish nor defeats by the Americans. 

The conflicts which gave these residts were very 
widely diffused. Except on the lakes, the Americans 
only engaged in single vessels, and did not accumulate 
any great maritime force on any one point. There was 
no battle of Trafalgar or Aboukir at sea, nor was there 
any Waterloo, or Borodino, or Austerlitz on land ; but 
there was a wide dispersion of force over lake, and sea, 
and land ; and, by using a little military imagination, 
we might say that the battle was all round the country, 
and all over the water. 

Such was the mode of conductinjr the war, and the 



') 



general course of events which characterized it. It was, 
in its origin, mainly a commercial war. There was, 
therefore, an appositeness — a fitness in conducting it 
vigorously on the water. Accordingly, the naval ope- 
rations soon excited a most intense interest, and were 
attended with the most brilliant success. What facts or 
circumstances brought about this success of the navy .'' 
and to what circumstances are we to attribute the fre- 



THE WAR OF 1812. 335 

quent disasters which occurred to the American forces 
on land ? 

III. The triumphs on the lakes and ocean may be 
attributed to the skill of the American naval officers, and 
to the experience and heroism of the seamen. The 
United States had been engaged in a maritime war with 
Tripoli, during which their little navy became acquainted 
with actual service. The superior officers and others 
who had been employed in these hazardous enterprises 
continued in the navy, and formed its most efficient ma- 
terial. They had been schooled among the rocks and 
gun-boats of the Barbary coast, and now applied the 
useftd knowledge there acquired to maintain the cause 
of their country against the greatest maritime power in 
the world. The superior skill of the Americans in gun- 
nery was manifested by the great disparity of lives lost 
in these naval actions, and also by the difference of 
damage done to the vessels of the respective nations ; 
the loss of life on board the American vessels being very 
much less than that on board the British, and the ships 
of the enemy being much more cut up than those of the 
Americans. 

The extensive commerce of the United States, espe- 
cially the carrying-trade between the belligerent nations 
previously to 1807, had also trained and disciplined many 
seamen in all the tactics of the ocean, and prepared 
them for efficient service. Hence, when an American 
ship was brought into battle, she was usually well handled. 
If she was attacked by a superior force, her crew under- 
stood all the stratagems by which to escape from their 
too powerful foes ; an example of which may be cited 
in the case of the gallant ship the Constitution, which 
succeeded in making her escape from a British squadron 
after a chase of two days and a half — a race which ex- 



336 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

hibited more skill and seamanship than any other affair 
during the war. The crews of the American vessels 
also went into the contest with a vivid recollection of 
the many injuries which the commerce of their country 
had suffered, and also with the ardent feelings excited 
by the remembrance of old comrades, and sometimes 
of relatives, who had been seized and carried away as 
British subjects. They were, too, of the same blood' — 
of the same Anglo-Saxon and Celtic stock as the heroes 
of the British navy who had fought at Aboukir and Tra- 
falgar, and all over the oceans and seas ; and whose 
gallant bearing and inborn courage had rendered truthful 
the poetic declaration, that 

" Britannia needs no bulwarks, 
No towers along the steep ; 
Her march is on the mountain wave, 
Her home is on the deep." 

The American seamen being by birth and blood of 
the same family with the gallant tars who had gained 
this maritime superiority for Britain, entered the contest 
with equal bravery, more skill, and many personal griev- 
ances. Hence it resulted that, in the naval battles where 
the forces were nearly equal, there was much severe 
fighting ; ships v/ere lost and won on both sides, and 
great gallantry exhibited ; but there was a general course 
of success in favour of the Americans. 

IV. The army of the United States was not so suc- 
cessful as the navy ; a result which is mainly to be at- 
tributed to the want of preparation before the war was 
commenced, and to the aggressive character of the mi- 
litary operations on the north. The time for declaring 
hostilities by the United States was of their own choos- 
ing, but they inconsiderately began the war while their 
army and navy were both in a condition unfit for very 



THE WAR OF 1812. 337 

efficient service. For example, on Lake Erie there was, 
at the declaration of war, one small vessel in dock and 
unfinished ; and to complete its misfortunes, the little 
thing- was included in Hull's surrender, and went over 
to the British. The land forces of the regular army were 
on a similar scale ; for when all told, they amounted to six 
or seven thousand, and these were dispersed over a great 
extent of country. A few requisitions for militia had been 
made upon the states, and these forces were on the north- 
western frontier, where they were left without proper in- 
structions — the British in that quarter having received the 
first information of the declaration of war. This want 
of preparation and management paralyzed the efforts of 
the United States at the beginning of the war, and gave 
the British forces time to concentrate on the points where 
danger was threatened. 

The American arms on the north were also unsuc- 
cessful in their attempts to invade Canada. Several of 
these attempts were made both in Upper and Lower Ca- 
nada ; and though some advantages were gained, and 
several battles fought, the invasions were, in the main, 
unsuccessful. Military men have given the opinion that, 
in the actual state of matters, prudence required the 
American trlfcps to act on the defensive, and not to as- 
sume the aggressive. Certain it is, that the defensive 
conduct of the American militia at other points, as at 
Orleans and Baltimore, was attended by much happier 
results. The forces who acted on the north were as 
brave as any in the world ; but the invasion of a country 
where all is hostile requires more skill, and discipline, 
and perseverance, and manoeuvring, than is ordinarily 
possessed by any militia. Hence, all the attempts to 
gain possession of Canada by the American militia were 
unsuccessful, though they were made at different points 
2f 



338 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

alongf a frontier of eight or nine hundred miles in ex- 
tent. On the south and east of the country, where a 
merely defensive warfare was maintained, the results 
were more advantageous to the United States. At Or- 
leans more especially, the success of the militia in the 
protection of the city exhibited the manner in which that 
force can be rendered most efficient ; and a similar lesson 
was given by the energy with which the defences of 
Baltimore were conducted. 

V. Were we to inquire concerning the difficult or 
adverse circumstances in which this war was waged by 
the United States, we would find some of them to be- 
long to the peculiar situation of the country at that time, 
and others of them to be incident to our form of go- 
vernment. Though the United States selected their own 
time for commencing hostilities, neither their army nor 
their navy was a proper representative of the force of 
the country. The attention of the government had been 
called by Washington to the navy; but, as was observed 
in a previous lecture, this department of the national 
power became a subject of party discussion between the 
Federalists and Democrats, and no provisions of an ex- 
tensive or permanent nature were made for its support. 
During the administration of the elder A^lams, some 
prominence was given to it ; but the great expense which 
was required to equip a vessel for sea, restrained the 
general government in its maritime preparations. There 
were, indeed, wars and rumours of wars, and much hard 
fighting in Europe during his administration ; but the 
United States, though somewhat moved, were away from 
the whirlpool which was agitating the innumerable in- 
terests and passions of the Old World. 

When Mr. Jeflferson succeeded to the presidential 
phair, he brought with him opinions rather hostile than 



THE WAR OF 1812. 33^ 

favourable to the naval service. The vast maritime force 
of Great Britain impressed him with the belief that the 
fleets equipped by the United States would speedily be 
Captured by England, and would merely be vessels built 
for her service. Besides, the enormous expense of a 
navy rendered it unpopular. Economy was considered 
an essential element of democratic government ; and in 
order to be economical, the general government sought 
other means of protection than those to be found on the 
deck of a man-of-war. Mr. Jefferson accordingly con- 
tracted the circle of maritime operations to mere coast 
and harbour defences — a service in which it was sup- 
posed gun-boats might well take the place of ships, as 
they would be equally efficient and less expensive. This 
method of defence was accordingly received into favour 
to tlie neglect of the navy. 

From these views it resulted that the naval power of 
the United States at the commencement of the war 
amounted to nothing on the lakes, and counted on the 
Atlantic only four frigates and eight sloops. This was 
the force which the republic possessed for defending 
seven thousand merchant-vessels at sea, and for con- 
ducthig a war which was commercial in its origin, and 
was maintained by Great Britain with her thousand ships. 

This economy of the general government was cer- 
tainly misplaced, for it confined the energies of the nation 
to a mere coast defence, when by maintaining a greater 
force afloat in the shape of a navy, the insults to our 
flag and the injuries to our commerce by the raging bel- 
ligerents of Europe might have been prevented. The 
commerce of the world was open to the United States 
at the commencement of the wars of the French Revo- 
lution in 1792; and had our republic possessed a navy 
adequate to the protection of her maritime rights during 



340 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the twenty years that followed, the continued series of 
insults from England and France would not very pro- 
bably have been offered. It requires, indeed, not much 
sagacity to connect the war of 1812, and all its pre- 
ceding and accompanying injuries, with the unwilling- 
ness of our government to maintain a naval power suf- 
ficient to protect our commerce. We do not say that 
the United States had the means to keep afloat a navy 
equal to that of Great Britain. They unquestionably 
had not. But even the resources which they could have 
employed were not applied to this purpose, because it 
seemed altogether impossible to contend with England 
for equal rights upon the ocean. 

The collisions in 1798, in the West Indies, between 
the little American squadron, under Commodore Truxtun, 
and the French ships-of-war, were highly creditable to 
the former ; but our people were still not aware that the 
ocean was the element on which the honour and power 
of our republic were to be maintained. This idea did 
not take full possession of the American mind until 
actual hostilities with Great Britain demonstrated what 
our navy could accomplish. W^hen the capture of the 
British frigates the Guerriere, the Java, the Macedonian, 
&c., proved that the United States could maintain their 
rights on the ocean, the navy came into favour, and will 
henceforth be relied upon as the powerful means of pro- 
tection and defence. 

The active commercial enterprise in which the people 
of the United States had engaged, was of great and es- 
sential service, and contributed much to this naval suc- 
cess. American seamen had been schooled on the waves 
of the Atlantic and Pacific, and in every sea where wind 
and sails and private gain could carry them. Hence, 
when the war commenced, national vessels and pri- 



THE WAR OF 1812. 341 

vateers were in the hands of men who were well ac- 
quainted with all that related to a seafaring life. The 
maritime strength of the republic lay not in national 
ships, but in the numerous body of seamen who were 
dispersed through the seven thousand private merchant- 
vessels of the nation. Here was the real power of the 
government upon the ocean in those days, and here is 
its real maritime strength at the present time. More ex- 
tensive success might have been obtained in the last war 
if this ocean militia had 'been directed to more active 
operations — directed at an earlier day — and directed by 
the government so as to bring all its concentrated and 
converging energies to the service of the nation. We 
have stated that four frigates and eight sloops were all 
that our republic had in service when the war com- 
menced, while Great Britain had one thousand national 
armed vessels. It must be admitted that such a limited 
preparation on the ocean was a circumstance very dis- 
advantageous to the United States ; but it was an acci- 
dental circumstance — a condition of things arising from 
the views of statesmen at that day, and in no way con- 
nected with the essential nature or organization of our 
government. A monarch on an American throne, if 
such a being is within the range of imagination, might 
have committed a similar mistalce — might have supposed 
that gun-boats were, in all the circumstances, the best 
practicable means of operation upon water. The enter- 
prise of the country, which had raised up seafaring men, 
supplied the place of more ample preparation, and 
brought forward gallant heroes to protect and defend 
the ocean rights of the republic. American privateers 
abounded in almost every sea and ocean of the world ; 
and their sails were unfurled, and their cannon heard in 
the Pacific, in the Indian Ocean, all over the Atlantic, 
2f* 



342 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

in the West Indies, and in the channels off the coasts 
of Great Britain. Immense injuries were inflicted upon 
the commerce of England, and, during the two years 
and a half of the continuance of the war, the number 
of prizes made by the Americans, according to the 
record in Niles's Register, amounted to fourteen hundred 
and eight vessels, a large number of which contained 
cargoes of great value. Many others doubtless were 
taken whose names did not find their way to that record ; 
and the merchants of the sea-port towns made a profit- 
able business out of the depredations they committed 
upon the enemy's commerce. So active were the pri- 
vateers of the United States in this business, that towards 
the latter part of the war, insurance on British vessels 
against capture, from Liverpool to Halifax, amounted 
to thirty-five per cent. The British were not remiss in 
making similar attacks upon the American commerce ; 
but their captures of vessels from the United States 
during the war, did not much exceed the number of 
their illegal seizures during the one-sided peace which 
preceded open hostilities. One melancholy fact was 
demonstrated by these captures ; and that was, that the 
two nations had the means of inflicting immense injuries 
upon each other. Perhaps no two people ever possessed 
the power of doing more harm to one another than the 
United States and Great Britain — a fact which was partly 
verified in the war of 1812, and is unquestionably true 
at the present time. How diligently should peace be 
cultivated between two such nations ! 

By the activity of the American privateers, the ma- 
ritime force of the country was brought into the conflict 
rather spontaneously than officially — rather privately than 
publicly. Such a free-will offering was, however, in ac- 
cordance with the character of the people — it harmonized 



THE WAR OF 1812. 343 

with the conduct of a preceding generation in the trials 
of the Revolution ; and proved that the strength of our 
republic lies in the patriotism of its citizens — in private 
enterprise rather than in public coercion. 

But if the want of maritime preparation on the part 
of the government was an accident — a condition of 
affairs not necessarily connected with the genius of our 
institutions — there were other matters of an adverse cha- 
racter which originated in a more vital part of our po- 
litical system. Of these I will merely mention the 
division of the people into parties — a division which, at 
some stages of the war, threatened the government with 
serious embarrassment. The war, as we have already 
stated, was a measure of the democratic party — it was 
advocated by them — and, at its commencement, pretty 
generally opposed by the Federalists. Removed as we 
are in time from the prejudices and interests, and per- 
sonal preferences and dislikes which, in those days, 
agitated the actors in our country, we are at liberty to 
speak of the motives — the views and influences — which 
caused some of them to advocate the war, and others 
to condemn it. In a previous lecture, we traced the 
main dividing line of the old parties in our country. 
Their bloodless warfare, which was of the most active 
and vigilant character, impressed its mark upon the first 
twenty-five years of our constitutional history. When 
the injuries inflicted by Britain and France were pressing 
severely on the commerce of the United States, the 
measures proposed for its protection — embargo — non-im- 
portation — non-intercourse — war and all — became mat- 
ters of party discussion. Different views were entertained 
of every measure adopted ; and when the conflict began, 
the Federalists were, from one circumstance and another, 
generally arrayed in opposition to it — made speeches, 



344 PKOGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

held conventions, and put forth addresses condemning 
it. Their opposition to it was greatly promoted by party 
feeling, apart from its merits or demerits. For twenty 
years and more, they had been discussing the relative 
merits of the wars between France and England ; and 
while they accused the Democrats of subserviency to 
the former, they themselves were accused of favouring 
too much the cause of Great Britain. Without ad- 
mitting that either party was disposed voluntarily to give 
to these nations a preference injurious to their own 
country, the conclusion is legitimate, that these discus-* 
sions and accusations — the effervescence of partyism — 
brought the Federalists gradually into the attitude of 
apologists for Great Britain. They became her apologists 
even after the war was actually commenced. Their 
feelings being also strongly repugnant to the French, 
they were disposed to endure much, and to excuse much 
from England, because she was engaged in a war of 
life and death with Napoleon. This preference of the 
English to the French — a preference originating appa- 
rently in accident rather than in system — when combined 
with party prejudices, led many in the United States to 
speak of the war as unjust, ill advised, and most ruinous 
to the country. In brief, the Federalists opposed the 
war at its beginning, and all the time of its continuance. 
As a party they were ruined — politically annihilated by 
their opposition. 

Permit us to mention a few details illustrative of the 
course of their opposition. 

First came the protest or address of the minority 
in Congress. Hardly was the declaration of war an- 
nounced, when an address signed by thirty-five members 
of the House of Representatives was circulated over the 
country, the object of which was to prove that there ex- 



THE WAR OF 1812. 345 

isted no reasonable grounds of "war between the United 
States and Great Britain, It enumerated the relations 
of our republic to France and England, and represented 
the war as a measure undertaken to aid the former. The 
address concludes in these words : 

"At a crisis of the world such as the present, and 
under impressions such as these, we could not consider 
the war into which the United States have in secret been 
precipitated, as necessary, or required by any moral 
duty or any political expediency." 

This address became the model for others of a similar 
character, which were put forth by conventions, and 
sometimes even by state legislatures. 

Next came the official papers, gubernatorial mes- 
sages, reports of committees, &c., which, in some of the 
states where the Federalists prevailed, kept up an in- 
cessant examination of the causes of the war. The 
men whose minds these documents expressed, were con- 
tinually finding fault with the administration. They 
argued instead of fighting ; and the Democrats con- 
demned both their logic and their patriotism. 

After all this artillery was fired off, the Hartford Con- 
vention made its appearance, and was among the last of 
the public party efforts against the war. That renowned 
assembly, composed of delegates from Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, and Connecticut, has been the most se- 
verely condemned of all the party movements of our 
country. What was its origin and object ? The Pre- 
sident of the United States, through his proper officers, 
had made a requisition upon Massachusetts for a portion 
of her militia. The authorities of that state practically- 
resolved to obey the constitution of the United States 
as tliey understood it ; and being Federalists, tliey did 
not understand it to authorize the President, of his own 



346 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

accord, to call the militia of a state into the field, and 
place them under the command of officers of his own 
appointment. The Governor of Massachusetts then 
wrote to the Secretary of war in substance as follows : 

Sir: — We wdll not subject our militia to the control 
of the President. We want them for our own defence, 
and will employ them to fight as we see proper. Will 
tire general government pay their expenses ? 

Your most obedient servant, &c. 

To this the Secretary of war replied in substance: 

Sir :■ — If you will fight only in your own way, fight 
on. The general government wall not pay your ex- 
penses. Your most obedient servant, &c. 

The Federalists declared the answer of the secretary 
to be very " alarming ;" and the Hartford Convention was 
immediately called to deliberate upon the concerns of 
New England in particular, and upon the welfare of the 
United States in general. The Convention condemned 
the conduct of the general government — accused it of 
violating the constitution — discussed the right of the 
president to call out and control the militia of a state — 
proposed divers amendments to the constitution, of a 
very democratic character — and talked quite eloquently 
in the language of Nullification. These proceedings 
were denounced at the time by the people of other sec- 
tions of the country, in the most pointed and energetic 
terms.. Even on the very soil where they originated, 
they were too ultra ; and the eloquent protests of the 
minorities in the two houses of the legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts, energetically condemned the whole business.* 

* The protest of the minority of the Senate held the following lan- 
guage : 



THE WAR OF 1812. 347 

This course of opposition on the part of the Fede- 
ralists was an adverse circumstance ; but it was a cir- 
cumstance which had its origin deep in our pohtical 
system. It was adverse, because it sometimes caused 
serious embarrassment to the general government. It 
thwarted the measures of the administration, and dimi- 
nished the means of carrying on the war after it was 
commenced. It was also an adverse circumstance be- 
cause it encouraged the enemy to undertake military 
operations in hopes of profiting by this dissatisfaction. 
For example, the expedition of the British to Lake 
Champlain, with the design of proceeding to the Hudson 
and New York, was commenced in the expectation on 
their part, that if such a military intersection of the 
country coulci be effected, the New England states, 
where the Federalists prevailed, would readily dissolve 
their connexion with the Union, and make a separate 
peace. But Plattsburg and M'Donough's fleet arrested 

"****** Our country is engaged in a just and {of late) suc- 
cessful war. Our resources are abundant, our government is adequate, 
and our citizens are brave, enterprising, and intelligent. Union alone 
can secure us the blessings of peace. While our commissioners are 
negotiating with the most earnest solicitude for their country's wel- 
fare — while our army and navy are defending the soil, and maintaining 
the honour and glory of our country — while our brave yeomanry are 
rushing like a torrent from the mountains to the shore to meet and 
repel the invader, and the spirit of parry is becoming absorbed in the 
spirit of patriotism, why should Massachusetts, great, powerful, re- 
epcctable Massachusetts, form a combination which will defeat the 
hojies of the friends of peace, and aid and encourage a powerful and 
vindictive enemy? ***** Ambition has destroyed every other re- 
public on earth. The United States stand alone, like a solitary rock, 
in the midst of the ocean, surrounded and assailed by storms and tem- 
pests. In vain may we look for aid, except from union, energy, and 
Heaven ; apprehending and believing that from neither of these sources 
can we expect it so long as we indulge in the adoption of such reso- 
lutions," (the resolutions convoking the Hartford Convention) "we 
have prepared and signed the foregoing protest." 



348 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the expedition, and delivered New England from the 
temptation of becoming a province of the British Empire. 

The opposition of the Federalists was also an adverse 
circujiistance, because its natural effect was to diminish 
the number of those who would otherwise have hastened 
to the defence of their country. In other words, its ten- 
dency was to lessen the efficient power of the nation. 
It did lessen it ; and it often did so in such an indirect 
manner, and by such a process, that it was difficult to 
trace- the connexion between the federal opposition and 
the diminution of the force of the country, while it was 
most certain that such a connexion existed. We might 
cite many examples illustrative of this remote and in- 
direct influence. Take the following : 

When a large body of Americans under General Van 
Rensselaer crossed into Canada, and became engaged 
in the battle of Qaeenstown, the general returned to the 
American side of the river to hasten the passage of the 
troops who were to come to his assistance. He found 
them reading the constitution of the United States, to 
find out whether it was lawful to cross the boundary, 
and go into Canada, in order to fight the British. They 
didn't go ; they were constitutional cowards. Was there 
any connexion between their constitutional scruples and 
the steady opposition of the Federalists to the war ? 

This party opposition had, however, an origin deep 
in our political system. It was a result — a fact — an oc- 
currence which in its nature belongs to our government. 
I do not mean that the particular opposition of the Fe- 
deralists in diat case was necessarily connected with the 
nature of our government ; but I mean that from the 
structure of our political system — from the large amount 
of liberty here enjoyed — from the free discussion of all 
public matters — from the collision of different interests — 



THE WAR OF 1812. 349 

from the accident of personal preferences — from the or- 
dinary imperfections of human nature, that give rise to 
different opinions among honest and enhghtened men — 
from all these sources an opposition will perhaps always 
be organized against the leading measures of our go- 
vernment. From these sources an opposition has in fact 
always been formed to the men at the head of the re- 
public, and "judging of the future by the past," we are 
not to expect unanimity in time to come. Partyism — • 
differences of opinion as to public measures both of 
peace and war — may therefore be set down as inseparable 
from the form of our government. This is what is to 
be understood when it is said that the opposition of the 
Federalists to the war of 1812 had an origin deep in 
our political system. It sprang from the sources that 
gave rise to all the party contests that have occurred from 
the foundation of the government to the present hour. 
The fall of the party which in our own country opposed 
the war is, however, a lesson full of instruction and 
warning to those who, in time to come, may be disposed 
to resist the government in its collisions with foreign 
nations. Such conduct will not be repeated. 

The patriotism of the people finally rejected the tram- 
mels of party ; many of the Federalists came into the 
support of the war ; and the nation appeared to grow 
stronger as the contest progressed. 

VI. But the struggle in America was materially af- 
fected by the change of aff'airs in Europe. 

When the war was declared, Napoleon was on his 
way to Russia, with half a million of soldiers, to compel 
its emperor to adopt the continental system. The ter- 
rible reverses of that campaign prepared the way for the 
destruction of his power; and, after a year of unpa- 
ralleled fighting, all Europe was congregated at Paris ; 
2g 



350 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the emperor abdicated, and in the spring of 1814 went 
an exile to Elba. These events extended their influence 
to American affairs, and cut off, or rather removed, the 
causes of the war. The impressment of American sea- 
men, and the paper blockades which had destroyed our 
commerce, were, for the time, abandoned by Great Bri- 
tain. She had, indeed, soon after the war commenced, 
repealed her orders in council which had been so de- 
structive to American commerce ; and now that the strug- 
gle with France was ended, there was a probability that 
blockading the continent of Europe by the mere orders 
of the British cabinet, would not be soon repeated. 

There was, therefore, no longer any direct object to 
be gained by a continuation of the contest. For the 
abstract right was now all that remained to fight about, 
and both nations were too much given to matter of fact 
to spend blood and treasure for a theory. With re- 
gard to impressment and blockade, it was not the the- 
ory, but the practice which had given offence to the 
Americans ; and when the British government, at the 
fall of Napoleon, discontinued the practice, or rather 
declared its willingness, for the time being, to let Ame- 
rican ships go where they chose without being searched, 
there was no insuperable difficulty in procuring a ces- 
sation of hostilities. Accordingly, the treaty of Ghent, 
restoring peace between the two nations, was negotiated 
to a conclusion, and signed in December 1814. Pre- 
viously, however, to this result, the United States being 
left alone to fight against Great Britain, made prepara- 
tions on a more extensive scale for continuing hostilities. 
The pillaging warfare of the British in the bay and ri^-ers 
of the Chesapeake, and at other points, excited the 
Americans to increased exertions, and brought them 
with greater earnestness into the contest. The vigour 



THE WAR OF 1812. 351 

and energy with which they now entered upon it, showed 
that they were just beginning to fight ; and also proved 
the important fact, that our government is able to 

RALLY THE FORCE OF THE NATION IN DEFENCE OF ITS 
RIGHTS. 

This last fact is one of much interest to the friends 
of our republican system. Indeed, the strength of the 
nation seemed to accumulate with the progress of the 
war ; and though the local militia on land, and the pri- 
vateers at sea, acted rather << on their own hook" than 
under the control of the government, they nevertheless 
brought the force of the nation into the contest. The 
disaffection arising from party prejudices greatly sub- 
sided before the treaty of peace, or was rebuked in such 
a manner that it was unable to prevent the efficient and 
united action of the American people. This was just 
the point in which it was feared the weakness of the re- 
public lay. The power of democracy in America is so 
much diffused — dispersed — diluted — and portioned out 
among individuals, and districts, and parties, and states, 
that there is apparently a want of centralization, of 
combined action. But the apprehensions of weakness 
arising from this dispersion, were themselves dispersed 
by the fact, that in the war of 1812 the whole country, 
as in the days of the Revolution, moved to the work of 
defence. The irruptions of the British into the ter 
ritory of the United States were, with the exception of 
the inroad upon Washington City, attended with uniform 
defeat. Even the veteran soldiers of Wellington, who 
liad driven the French from Spain, were unsuccessful 
both at Plattsburg and Orleans. These resuUs, and the 
results of the whole war, intimated that there is a suf- 
ficient intelligence in our republic to direct its foreign 



352 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

affairs, and sufficient power to protect itself against fo- 
reign foes. The federative system proved itself able to 
bring the people up to the successful defence of their 
country. 

Our only object in presenting this idea is to show 
that a democracy — the democracy of the United States — 
is capable of taking care of itself, and protecting itself 
against aggressions from without. It is frequently urged, 
that though the people of a nation may be able to govern 
themselves, yet in their foreign relations and foreign 
wars they need the wisdom of an aristocracy to direct 
their affairs, and the power of a monarch to concentrate 
their energies. But the events of the war of 1812 
proved that the centralizing genius of a monarch is not 
needed to rally the people of the United States in the 
defence of their rights. Much less is the wisdom of an 
aristocracy needed to direct the affairs of this people. 
They comprehend their foreign relations. They are also 
acquainted with their own internal resources ; and their 
public men are not inferior to any titled aristocracy of 
any nation, either in the intelligence or the ability to 
direct the external affairs of the country. If great errors 
were committed at the commencement of the war of 
1812, a despot and an aristocracy may commit, and 
often have committed still more grievous errors in the 
management of public affairs. We do not say that a 
republic can manage its foreign relations better than a 
monarchy, or conduct its wars with more energy than a 
despotism ; nor do we say that the mere fact, that our 
republic can concentrate its energies against a foreign, 
enemy, is any proof of the superiority of our histitutions. 
Napoleon concentrated the energies of France, and 
Alexander those of Russia. Other despots have done 



THE WAR OF 1812, 353 

the same. "We do not claim for our republic any su- 
periority in this respect. All that we say is that our 
system of institutions operates in such a manner that it 
brings the force of the nation to the protection of the 
nation's rights. If, in national defence, our republic is 
not superior to a monarchy, it has proved itself not to be 
inferior. 

But what was gained by the war of 1812 ? Did it 
prove that a democracy can negotiate as well as fight ? 
I have said that the fall of Napoleon and the cessation 
of the wars in Europe, prepared the way for peace be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain. But the 
treaty of Ghent, by which that peace was concluded, 
did not make any provision upon the subject of neutral 
rights. The abstract questions about blockades and 
the right of search were passed over in silence, the un- 
derstanding between the two governments being that 
neither of these subjects would give any trouble so long 
as Europe remained in peace. It has been frequently 
said that the United States failed in the object of the 
war, because they procured no adjustment of these 
questions. But our government, as already observed, 
did not think it advisable to embarrass the negotiations 
for peace by pressing Great Britain to acknowledge 
rights that were in no immediate danger. It is certainly 
a mistake, however, to suppose that in thus passing the 
matter over in silence, the Americans yielded to Great 
Britain the right of searching their ships, and removing 
from them such individuals as the searching; officer miijht 
choose to pronounce British subjects. The United States, 
so far from yielding upon this point, were firmly re- 
solved, at the close of the war, never to submit to such 
a practice — a resolution which has not been changed by 
2g* 



354 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the long peace of more than thirty years. They were 
then of the opinion, and they are now of the opinion 
that the only admissible rule upon the subject is, that 
seamen on board of an American vessel shall be pro- 
tected by the American flag.* The honour of the na- 
tion, and the protection it owes to its citizens, alike re- 
quire that this rule, and no other, shall be adopted upon 
the subject. 

We have now exhibited an example illustrative of 
the practical operation of our republic where its external 
affairs are concerned. What is the result ? It may be 
summed up in a single sentence .* TJie force of the nation 
is readily concentrated in defence of its rights. The 
ancient Greek republic was formed by a union of states ; 

* Since the above was written, the Hon. Daniel Webster, in his 
speech on the treaty of Washington, delivered in the Senate of the 
TJnitcd States on the 6th and 7tli of April, 1846, states the present 
position of the subject of impressment in strong and concise terms. 
After quoting from an official communication from himself, when 
secretary of state, to the British minister, the following declaration, 
"In every regularly documented American vessel, the crew 
WHO navigate it will find their protection in the flag that is 
OVER them," he says: 

" This declaration will stand. Not on accountof any particular ability 
displayed in the letter with which it concludes, still less on account 
of the name that subscribed it. But it will stand because it announces 
the true principles of public law ; because it announces the great doc- 
trine of the equality and independence of nations upon the seas, and 
because it announces the determination of the government and the 
people of the United States to uphold those principles, and to main- 
tain that doctrine through good report and through evil report for ever. 
We shall negotiate no more, nor attempt to negotiate more about im- 
pressment. We shall not treat hereafter of its limitation to parallels 
of latitude and longitude. We shall not treat of its allowance or dis- 
allowance in broad seas or narrow seas. We shall think no more of 
stipulating for exemption from its exercise of some of the persons 
composing crews. Henceforth the deck of every American vessel is 
inaccessible for any such purpose. It is protected, guarded, defended 
by the declaration I have read; and that declaration will stand." 



THE WAR OF 1812. 



355 



but in the hour of attack from without, it was unable to 
concentrate its energies. Its democracy was too dif- 
fused—too local— and it ceased to be a democracy. 
The United States, however, have shown their ability to 
maintain themselves against aggressions from without. 
This was manifested by tlie main facts, phases, and re- 
sults of the collision with Great Britain. Our government 
preserved, or rather fought its way into, a respectable 
position among the nations. It is no matter whether its 
power was brought into the contest by its own direct 
acts as a government, or by the voluntary acts of the 
people. In either point of view the truth is established, 
that the republican system existing in America, though 
weak inform, is strong in fact. 

Do you ask wherein its great strength lies.? We 
reply not in those bearded Sampsons— the kings ap- 
pointed by Heaven to rule. There is here a diffused 
strength— diffused along the Atlantic— diffused through 
the pine, and oak, and hickory woods of the mountains- 
diffused all over the great West— found on the Alle- 
ghanies, and giving signs of life in the valley of the Co- 
lumbia. And yet the genius of our institutions is such 
that this strength, dispersed over such a space, and 
through the heads and hearts and muscle of a widely 
scattered democracy, can nevertheless be readily con- 
centrated in defence of the nation. The people here 
voluntarily— spontaneously— patriotically put forth those 
defensive exertions which in monarchies and despotisms 
are obtained by coercion. Here is power— force— the 
energy of a governing people. Here lies the strength 
of our republic. It has obeyed the golden rule ; and it 
has the power to compel other nations to obey it, so far 
as to do justice to the American people. 



356 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

These considerations warrant us in indulging pleasing 
hopes of the permanence of our political system. They 
give us such a faith, because they are evidences — prac- 
tical proofs of the moral force of the people — proofs of 
their intelligence and patriotism. Without this intelli- 
gence and patriotism, our government is weak. With 
them, it will endure through long ages to come. 



LECTURE X. 

GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION — CONSERVATIVE IN- 
FLUENCES. 

Many peculiarities of the United States attributable to the condition 
of the natives and the great extent of country in North America — 
Geographical extension : I. Limits of the United States at the close 
of the Revolution — Settlement of the region between the Allegha- 
nies and the Mississippi — The fertility of the country and the rapid 
increase of its population — The new states formed between the 
Alleghany Mountains and Mississippi river; II. The Louisiana 
purchase — Its extent — Circumstances which gave it to the United 
States — The advantages of this acquisition; III. The acquisition 
of Florida — Its addition furnishes the United States a natural boun- 
dary on the south ; IV. The annexation of Texas — Statement of 
the arguments upon the question of its admission — Benefits derived 
from these several acquisitions of territory; V. Extension of the 
United States to the Pacific — Oregon and its limits — Its benefit to 
the United States and to the progress of civilization — Summary of 
the geographical additions to the Union. 

Conservative influences — They are moral, political, and mechanical: 
I. The moral influences (1), Education (2), Religion (3), Uniformity 
of laws, languages, and habits ; II. The political influences (1), The 
federative system (2), The ballot-box ; III. The material influences 
(1), The power of steam (2), The public press (3), Improvements in 
the arts — Efi'ect of these combined influences upon the permanence 
of our republican system — Conclusion. 

What has been the operation of the republican sys- 
tem of the United States .'' What results have been 
reached in the time that is past, and what results are to 
be expected in the time that is to come } A trial of 
seventy years has proved the practicability of the system. 
Our government is no longer an experiment. Through 
war and peace, through prosperity and through adversity, 
through evil report and through good report, through 



358 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

perils within and perils without, it has moved steadily- 
onward, extending in territory and growing in power. 
JYumerically, the population has increased from three to 
twenty millions, since the Declaration of Independence 
was signed. Geographically, the limits — the actual 
settled limits of the country — have been removed from 
the ridge of the Alleghanies to the base of the Rocky- 
Mountains. Over this vast space, and among all these 
millions, the institutions of our country have become 
established, determined — and, as we trust, permanent. 

Some parts of the world are governed too much, and 
others too little — no very sage remark it is true — but it 
is made for the purpose of adding that the republic of 
the United States is placed midway between despotism 
and anarchy. Its position is at that point where dis- 
order yields to government, and where tyranny — the 
sovereign rule of legitimacy- — has not yet commenced. 
Leaving man in the full enjoyment of his native energy, 
it surrounds him with the guardianship of law. The 
circumstances which gave it this position are to be found 
partly in the history of the European race during the 
last two thousand years, and partly in the peculiar con- 
dition of North America. A new form of political 
organization, originating in both these sources, has here 
developed itself. We call it new, because in its main 
essential features there is nothing in the Old World with 
which to compare it. If we look to the very Old 
World — to Asia, the cradle of the human race — there is 
not found in all its revolutions and changes any political 
system similar to our own. There, when the curtain 
rises, venerable patriarchs appear upon the stage — the 
land is soon covered with a population — all over it there 
are husbands with numerous wives and little ones, and 
flocks and herds. Their o-overnment is their own — 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 359 

sometimes patriarchal — generally despotic — never re- 
publican. If we look to Europe — another division of 
tlie Old World — in what corner of its surface, or in what 
age of its history do we find a political organization 
similar to the United States. It had its Grecians and its 
Romans in olden times, and its Swiss and its Hollanders 
in more modern days ; but its modern republics were 
aristocracies, and its ancient republics were small states, 
which, when they grew to the size of a Massachusetts 
or a Kentucky, passed into regal or imperial govern- 
ments. The legitimacy of Europe has generally had the 
ascendency over its democracy. Tacitus, indeed, says 
some wondrously democratic things of those Indians, 
the ancient Germans — and says them too in good classic 
Latin ; but his little tract on the " manners of the Ger- 
mans" is perhaps as veracious as the history of Robinson 
Crusoe. We cannot forget that it was written by the 
historian who describes the Jews as idolaters who wor- 
shipped asses, and made statues of swine. But without 
criticising Tacitus, we are warranted in saying that Eu- 
rope has had its owni peculiar circumstances, and its 
own political organization. Its feudal system, its early 
barbarism, and its later science, were its own. North 
America has also had and still has its peculiar circum- 
stances, and now has its peculiar political organization. 
Like other portions of the world — like Asia and Eu- 
rope — it has fish of its own — birds of its own — cane- 
brakes of its own, and a political system of its own. 
True, its present possessors, the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic 
race, brought their mills, their spades, their spelling- 
books, and their Bibles from the houses of their fathers 
beyond the water ; but when arrived here they adapted 
themselves to the circumstances of the country. They 
fought the Indians, because the Indians were here. They 



360 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

established republics, because they came here to escape 
from oppression. They rapidly filled the country, be- 
cause wealth, comfort, and a good conscience beckoned 
them hither. They modelled their government accord- 
ing to their own wishes, because here there were no 
standing armies — no crowned heads — no monarchical 
institutions to interfere with their democratic notions. 
The government they established accordingly received 
its peculiar form from the ideas they imported, and from 
the circumstances in which they found themselves when 
here. Among these circumstances, the condition of the 
natives, and the immense extent of uncultivated country, 
have had a most marked effect upon our republican 
system. 

We have said that there were Indians here — tall, 
dusky fellows, with painted faces, copper-coloured skins, 
and long straight black hair. But the red men gradually 
melted away before the civilization that was imported 
from Europe. Cities rose where their wigwams once 
stood ; the flail was heard where their hunting-grounds 
had been ; and new expansions — new facts in character, 
in politics, and in genius, were made known. From 
the condition of the country — from the small number of 
its aboriginal inhabitants — and from the enterprising 
character of the emigrants — from their wants, wishes, 
and perseverance, there was, after the first settlements 
along the Atlantic, a continual advancement of the Eu- 
ropeans — an unceasing progress — a pushing forward into 
the forests of this vast continent. The scattered natives 
gave place to the millions of white men. Hence, there 
has been a constant addition to the settled, cultivated 
part of the country. The United States have thus pro- 
gressed not merely numerically^ but also geographically. 
They have not only added millions of people, but mil- 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 361 

lions of cultivated acres to the old thirteen states. They 
have increased in political knowledge, and they have 
also increased in geographical knowledge. 

This geographical progress will claim much of our 
attention in the present lecture. 

I. Let us first examine a little into the territorial ex- 
tent of the United States at the organization of the go- 
vernment. What were then its inhabited limits ? Its 
actually settled — tamed — cultivated part? And what 
were then its paper boundaries — its diplomatic extent, as 
regulated by the treaties which recognised our inde- 
pendence. At present the territory of the United States 
reaches across the continent, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, and from the lakes on the north to the Gulf of 
Mexico on the south. How has it acquired this ex- 
pansion, and what have been the main steps of its 
onward territorial march? To answer such questions 
permit us to act the geographer for a few minutes. 
Noith America, in regard to its natural features, exhibits 
four grand divisions : the northern, the eastern, and the 
western declivities, and the great valley of the interior. 
The first of these embraces all that region whose w^aters, 
flowing towards the north and northeast, empty them- 
selves into the Arctic Ocean and Hudson's bay. This 
forms the great hunting-ground of the fur companies, 
and is perhaps unsuited to the permanent residence of a 
numerous population, or to the existence of a separate 
national government. The second declivity is that slope 
whose waters, flowing from the eastern side of the Alle- 
ghanies, and from the great lakes on the north, pour 
themselves into the Atlantic ocean. The western de- 
clivity dips from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to 
the Pacific, and sends most of its waters to the ocean by 
the Colorado and Columbia rivers. The great region 
2h 



362 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

of the interior, generally called the Mississippi valley, 
contains all the country between the Alleghany and 
Rocky Mountains, and sends its streams southward to 
the Gulf of Mexico. This last is by far the most fertile 
and luxuriant portion of North America, and in it the 
greatest expansion of the United States has taken place. 
Of these four divisions, the eastern declivity was the 
region where our republican institutions were first planted. 
The adventurers from Europe, who came hither to seek 
repose and freedom, and wealth, and new homes, dis- 
persed themselves along the Atlantic border, and gradu- 
ally pushed westward to the Alleghanies. This ridge 
of hills, rising in Georgia and running towards the 
northeast, adapts its zigzags nearly to those of the At- 
lantic until it gets round the head waters of the Susque- 
hanna, when it sweeps still more to the northeast, and 
loses itself in the Green Mountains, and among the un- 
chained hills of New England. At the time of the Re- 
volution, this line of heights was the western boundary 
of the inhabited part of the country. A few English 
settlements had been made on the western side of it, at 
Pittsburgh, and at other points ; but they were yet in 
their infancy, and were mere experiments of hardy and 
adventurous pioneers. The " backwoods" began, in 
those days, at the Alleghanies ; and the country between 
these hills and the Atlantic coast, contained the main 
body of the men who did the work of the Revolution. 
But if tlie Atlantic declivity was at that time the real 
and actual area of the United States, the prospective, or 
diplomatic boundary, lay far west of the Alleghanies. 
Let us see where this nominal boundary-line was esta- 
blished, and then trace the general course of affairs by 
which it became, and again ceased to be, the actual 
limits of our republic. 



^ GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 363 

We have already stated that many of the colonies, 
which were planted on the Atlantic, extended their kite- 
like tails, by charter, westward to the Pacific. Such 
was the western limit assigned to Georgia, the Carolinas, 
Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, 
in all the public charters and documents referring to 
their geography. On the other hand, Maryland, Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and 
New Hampshire, were, from time to time, carved out 
of the region originally included within the chartered 
limits of Virginia and Massachusetts, and boundaries 
were assigned to them nearly or altogether coinciding 
with those which they at present have. The country 
west of them was theoretically retained by the colonies 
from which they had been taken. We say theoretically, 
for actually Pennsylvania was, at the time of the Revo- 
lution, inhabited as far towards the west as Virginia. It 
is unnecessary to explain the fact, that this ocean limi- 
tation towards the west was assigned in utter ignorance 
of the geography of the country. The Pacific was sup- 
posed to be about where the Alleghanies were subse- 
quently found — an assertion which is confirmed by nu- 
merous incidents, and, among others, by the fact that 
Smith — Captain John Smith we mean — was searching 
for that ocean along the headwaters of the James River, 
when Powhattan caught him and sent him back, telling 
him that the Pacific ocean was not in those parts. 

But Smith died, and Powhattan died, and all that 
generation died ; new actors appeared upon the stage ; 
the progress of discovery towards the west continued — 
slowly indeed — but still it continued — and the French 
finally penetrated into the great valley of the interior. 
They crossed from the lakes on the northwest, and came 
to the Mississsippi, down which they descended to the 



364 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Gulf of Mexico. By virtue of these discoveries, France 
put in a claim to the valley of the Mississippi, the 
great interior region between the Alleghany and llocky 
Mountains. This country she erected into a territorial 
government, and named it Louisiana, in honour of the 
divinely-commissioned Louis XIV. French adventurers 
penetrated into it, and formed settlements at Orleans, at 
Natchez, at Vincennes, and at other points, promising 
themselves rich treasures of private gain, and the ad- 
dition of a western empire to the mother country. No 
very definite limiits were assigned to Louisiana, but we 
will not be much out of its geography by saying that it 
included all the country between the Alleghany and 
Rocky Mountains, from the Gulf of Mexico to the head 
waters of the Mississippi, and the lakes of the north. 

The claim of the French to this garden of North 
America, threatened a most serious interference with the 
territorial rights of the Atlantic colonies. A long series 
of disputes ensued, which, after reaching across half a 
century, eventuated in the seven years' war, generally 
known in our country as the Old French War. Its results 
were fatal to the territorial pretensions of France in North 
America. By the treaty of peace in 1763, she was 
stripped of Canada and of all Louisiana east of the Mis- 
sissippi, with the exception of a small tract of land near 
its mouth. All this region came into the undisputed 
possession of Great Britain, who at the same time ac- 
quired the Floridas from Spain, and thus became sole 
mistress of the country east of the Mississippi from the 
Gulf of Mexico to the remote north. 

This was the geography of English America at the 
commencement of the Revolution. By the treaty of 
peace, which recognised the independence of the co- 
lonies, their boundaries were adjusted ; but without pur- 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 365 

suing the formal language of that treaty, it will be suf- 
ficient to say that it designated Canada as the boundary 
of the United States on the north, the Mississippi river 
as the boundary on the west, and the thirty-first parallel 
of latitude and the Floridas as the boundary on the 
south. By this adjustment, the Mississippi river, and 
not the Pacific, became the nominal limit on the west — 
Great Britain giving in that direction all she had to give. 
By inspecting any map of the country, it will be seen 
that the United States, being limited on the south by the 
thirty-first parallel of latitude, were deprived of the 
mouths of the rivers that open into the Gulf of Mexico. 
This restriction originated in the fact that Spain was a 
party in the war of our Revolution, and in the adjust- 
ment of affairs at its close, obtained the Floridas from 
Great Britain. She had formerly obtained what was left 
of Louisiana from France ; and thus the United States 
had Spanish territories on the west and on the south. 

From tliis sketch, it will readily be perceived that 
the states retained the same western boundary which 
they had in their colonial days — being permitted to ex- 
tend to the Mississippi, But as already observed, the 
ridge of the AUeghanies was in general the limit of the 
actually settled country at the time of the Declaration of 
Independence. Between those mountains and the Mis- 
sissippi there lay an extensive tract of country, inter- 
sected in all directions by navigable streams and covered 
with the primeval forests. To pay the expenses of the 
Revolution, and for divers other considerations, those 
states whose boundaries extending to the Mississippi in- 
cluded these wild lands ceded the western portion of 
their territory to the general government. By these 
cessions or donations, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
Yorkj Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, divested 
2h* 



366 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

themselves of extensive possessions and designated their 
boundaries as they exist at present. The region thus 
conferred upon the general government, subject to cer- 
tain reservations, became the Public Lands of the United 
States, and was equal to about one-half of all the area 
of the country between the Mississippi and the Atlantic. 

The territory of the United States, as we have now 
described it, was rapidly populated. On the Atlantic 
side, the states of Vermont and Maine have been added 
to the old thirteen. Vermont was a flourishing district 
before the Revolution ; but the sovereignty over it being 
claimed both by New York and New Hampshire, the in- 
habitants declared themselves independent of both of 
those states, and erected a government of their own. 
Their pretensions were not recognised for several years ; 
but after they had fought along through the revolution, 
and through the hard times of the confederation, the 
difficulties were finally adjusted, and Vermont was ad- 
mitted into the Union. Maine came in at a later day, 
being set off from the territory included within Massa- 
chusetts. These two additions completed all that was 
to be added on the northeast. 

But it was in the west that the fertile valleys and rich 
lands were to furnish millions of additional inhabitants 
and extensive states. The Revolution was hardly ac- 
complished when the tide of emigration began to carry 
its thousands towards the west ; and hardy adventurers 
encountered privations and Indians, and scattered them- 
selves along the mountain slopes, round the head springs, 
and on the borders of the streams that flow from the 
Alleghanies to the Mississippi. The region northwest 
of the Ohio was erected into a territorial government in 
1787, and in a few years fruitful fields were interspersed 
all through that ancient wilderness. Projects of specu- 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 367 

lation carried many from the Atlantic states to that land 
of promise ; and companies, associations of wealthy men 
in the eastern states, attempted to form extensive settle- 
ments in the west, with the view of individual gain. 
Among the first of these associations appeared the New 
England Ohio Company, which endeavoured to establish 
a colony on the lands beginning at the mouth of the 
Muskingum, and reaching northward to Lake Erie. But 
companies for colonization in North America have gene- 
rally failed. The extension of democratic government 
does not seem to need their agency— at least they have 
generally been dispensed with. I have noticed the New 
England Ohio Company, because it was the first Anglo- 
American company which attempted for the west the 
same service that similar associations had at an earlier 
period attempted in the east, and because like them it 
was a failure. Individual enterprise— prospects of pri- 
vate gain— the desire to have plenty of land, and liberty 
to manage their houses and farms, and children in their 
own way, became the all-powerful motives to emigrate 
to the west. Accordingly, every man who went thither, 
went with his own peculiar views— went a freeman, and 
became more a freeman after arriving in his new home. 
Such a system of self-reliance cultivated a character of 
independence which, when combined as it has been, 
with a high regard for law and government, formed a 
most republican — a -most democratic population. This 
spirit of private enterprise soon carried thousands of 
emigrants into the region northwest of the Ohio. Farms 
w^ere there cultivated, cities were laid out, towns were 
built, government was organized ; and the states of 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, have been erected, 
while some of the first settlers in the region yet live to 
be numbered among the inhabitants. The northwest 



368 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

territory has receded more and more, and is now cornered 
in the angular space between Lake Superior and Lake 
Michigan, where it bides its time, preparing to add yet 
another state to the Union. 

So rapidly have the four states northwest of the Ohio 
increased in population, that they now contain about 
three millions of inhabitants — a number equal to that of 
all the states in the days of the Revolution. This popu- 
lation has carried with it, or rather has adopted, repub- 
lican institutions in all their purity. Their progress into 
that wilderness has been the progress of democracy — 
it has literally and geographically been the progress of 
the United States. 

If we direct our attention to the country southeast 
of the Ohio, we observe a similar series of facts. Emi- 
grants, animated by all the various motives that can 
prompt man to action, found their way to the rich re- 
gions of Kentucky and Tennessee. Who that hath ears 
to hear hath not heard of Daniel Boone ? — old hunting, 
pioneering, backwoods Daniel. Why is he not cut out 
in marble and set up on a pedestal, or in a niche, just 
as he stood, wearing his bear-skin cap, leaning on his 
rifle, and looking down with a tranquil, contemplative 
eye from a peak of the Alleghany Mountains into the 
rich valleys of Kentucky. Chisel Daniel Boone in mar- 
ble ! It is a useless work. He lives in the history of 
the country. He was a type, an imbodiment, a fair re- 
presentative of the adventurous spirit that carried millions 
into the great valley of the interior. His pioneering 
genius speedily pervaded thousands, and the backwoods- 
men of Virginia and the Carolinas pushed farther into 
the wilderness, and it soon ceased to be a wilderness. 

The early emigrants into the west, like their prede- 
cessors on the Atlantic declivity, had great and serious 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 369 

(lifficiilties to contend against. It is an easy matter to 
sit in a comfortable, well-cushioned chair, and read of 
their sufferings, and heroism, and perseverance. But 
get away to the woods, where the huge trees stand, the 
patriarchs of centuries — where savages are yelling — 
where bread is scarce — where square log-houses covered 
wdth clapboards struggle to keep the rain out and the 
heat in — where neighbours are few and wild beasts 
abundant — get away, I say, to these stern realities, and 
you are in the presence of the heroes — the genuine he- 
roes ■ — who settled and tamed the west, and gave our 
republic its geographical expansion. We call them 
heroes ; for their adventures, their sufferings, and their 
triumphs, mark out the heroic age of our country. If 
we inquire concerning the difficulties and dangers to 
which they were exposed, hundreds of legends and 
fragmentary publications tell us of the Indians who 
sternly resisted the advance of the English into the re- 
gion west of the Alleghanies. The war of the Revolu- 
tion left those savages in a bad humour, and they viewed 
with jealous eyes the encroachment of the white popula- 
tion upon their hunting-grounds — they picked their 
flints, sharpened their tomahawks, and prepared their 
paint. They waged a long and bloody contest with the 
emigrants on the east of the Mississippi, and persevered 
till their warriors and their hopes were destroyed. They 
would neither amalgamate with the Europeans nor re- 
cede before them. They stood their ground, refusing 
to receive by infusion the civilization of the white race, 
and striving to maintain the possessions and the savage 
independence of their forefathers. They rendered more 
than one spot a " dark and bloody ground ;" but they 
were resisting a law of nature — at least a law of human 
nature — for the general current of human affairs was 



370 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

impelling a people who carried with them the arts and 
the power of civilization against rude and barbarous 
tribes, who personally were heroes, but who had neitlier 
the intelligence, the numbers, nor the political organiza- 
tion sufficient to resist the onward, unceasing, mighty 
stream of emigration. Tli«ere was no equality between 
the forces brought into collision. On one side were ar- 
rayed, great numbers, a moral energy, an unceasing ac- 
cession from the east, the arts, the arms, and the address 
of civilization. On the other appeared, the dispersed 
and disunited aborigines, striving in vain to array savage 
heroism and individual prowess against the pressure of 
the opposing mass. The contest was in every point of 
view unequal. The laws of nature were not changed, 
and the weaker force yielded to the stronger. It yielded 
with many a violent spasm, but yet it yielded. 

We have said that the number of the Indians was 
small. From their roving mode of life, and want of 
political unity, no accurate knowledge of their numbers 
has ever been obtained. Various estimates concerning 
them have been made, all based on conjecture and on 
the Single Rule of Three rather than upon actual, old- 
fashioned counting. John Filson, geographer and his- 
toriographer to Daniel Boone, and who published in 
1784, " The Discovery, Purchase, and Settlement of 
Kentucke," enumerates twenty-eight tribes of Indians, 
all that were then known on the east of the Mississippi, 
and puts down their number at " twenty thousand souls 
in all." Imlay, the writer of the topographical de- 
scription of Kentucky, estimates sixty thousand Indians 
in the valley of the Mississippi, including nearly all the 
range between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains. 
These estimates are certainly too small ; and we will 
have doubtless a closer approximation to the truth by 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 371 

tripling them, and allowing sixty thousand on the east 
of the Mississippi, and one hundred and eighty thousand 
between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains. These 
numbers, it is true, are made by arithmetic and clever 
guessing, but they are quite as high as the best authori- 
ties admit, and sufficiently accurate for the only purpose 
I now have in view, which is to represent the conquest 
and expulsion of the Indians as the inevitable result of 
their collision or contact with the white race. But they 
maintained the conflict for twenty years on the southeast 
of the Ohio, and inflicted wound after wound upon the 
emigrants. Their code of warfare had no name for 
mercy. But they finally vanished from the presence of 
their foes, and many of their tribes ceased to exist. 

Notwithstanding the resistance of the Indians, the 
stream of emigration to the west flowed on ; and by the 
year 1790 there were about one hundred thousand in- 
habitants scattered over the region between the Allegha- 
nies and the Mississippi, a large proportion of whom 
were within the limits of the present states of Kentucky 
and Tennessee. These were merely the forerunners of 
the millions that followed. One emigrant attracted ten 
after him. 

The wants and cares of this population soon im- 
pressed a distinctive character upon them. They were 
in the woods, on the borders of magnificent streams, 
exposed to dangers, away from the monarchical institu- 
tions of Europe, away from the cultivated life of the 
Atlantic border, among mountains, in rich valleys, almost 
in a world of their own, and yet receiving continually 
additions from the east. From all these modifying in- 
fluences, they grew up a patriotic, a high-minded, and 
a republican people. They created — literally, and by 



372 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

no figure of speech' — they created around them the com- 
forts, and luxuries, and elegancies of life. 

Their political organization kept pace with their po- 
litical wants. In 1790, Congress erected the country 
southeast of the Ohio into a territorial government, and 
extended to it the laws of the Union. Kentucky had 
received much of its population from Virginia, within 
whose ancient limits it lay, and under whose laws it 
continued for a time. Tennessee grew up nominally 
under the laws of North Carolina, but in fact under the 
laws of the emigrants themselves. They erected the 
eastern part of that region into a government, and gave 
it the significant name of the state of Frankland, and it 
was most literally ^.freeland. It came, however, in col- 
lision with the authorities of North Carolina, and after 
much heart-break, and a little bloodshed, Frankland 
submitted to the parent state, and subsequently passed, 
by cession from North Carolina, to the general govern- 
ment, and was included in the southeast territory. 

But the condition of the whole territory south of the 
Ohio and east of the Mississippi, was continually vary- 
ing. Every year brought a new state of affairs ; the 
main feature of all the changes being a rapid increase in 
population, and an extension of popular institutions. In 
a few years, Kentucky and Tennessee were erected into 
states, and added to the Union. Alabama and Missis- 
sippi were at a later day carved out of the same region, 
and took their place in the nation. 

Thus eight states have been formed between the 
Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi river, within 
the boundaries of the United States as established by 
the treaty which recognised their independence. The 
population which hastened to this region were schooled 
in the business of self-government, many of them being 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 373 

natives of the Eastern States. Consequently, when es- 
tabhshed in their new homes, their abihty to make their 
own laws, their desire of popular government, their 
correct views of the work of the Revolution, and their 
whole political creed, fitted them — eminently fitted them 
to embrace, protect, and extend our republican system. 
They therefore adopted democratic institutions, because 
such institutions were congenial with all their habits, 
tastes, and wants. Their political organization was, in 
the main, their own work. It was not the force of 
concessional acts that erected them into states. The 
country, the western country we mean, invited them to 
come to its rich lands. They went, and when there they 
adopted that system of laws and that code of liberty 
which was suited to their condition and their necessities. 
But their laws, government, and institutions, harmonized 
with those of the Eastern States. They therefore came 
forward, from time to time, and added their wealth, their 
strength, and their influence to the Union. Here was 
progress — geographically — numerically. These eight 
states extend over a great surface. They are still in- 
creasing in population, and are capable of containing, 
and will soon contain, many millions of inhabitants more 
than they have at present. 

II. Let us next inquire into- the geographical exten- 
sion which was effected for our republic by the purchase 
of Louisiana. The United States were not destined to 
be limited by the Mississippi on the west, and penned 
in by artificial lines on the south. Astronomers make 
parallels of latitude, but nature made the Gulf of Mexico. 
Every nation strives for those natural boundaries which 
are pointed out by its wants and its convenience ; and 
no nation ever needed a natural boundary more than the 
United States needed the Gulf of Mexico for their 
2i 



374 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

southern limit. There was indeed a necessity — an irre- 
sistible necessity, that the people who inhabited the rich 
lands in the upper region of the Mississippi, should have 
the control and unlimited use of that river to its mouth. 
To deprive them of this natural communication with the 
rest of the world, would in reality cut off the great com- 
mercial artery which afforded them nourishment and life. 
There is such a fact as contiguity — a natural unity of 
country arising from the course of trade, and from the 
necessity of possessing one region in order to have the 
full enjoyment of another with which it is connected. 
Such a contiguity — such a natural unity exists in the 
west, in the great valley of the interior, where one nation 
cannot have the full possession and enjoyment of the 
fruitful plains and slopes that are watered by the rivers, 
while another has the control of the bays and harbours, 
and river mouths that open to the ocean. Nature has 
established a harmony and a correspondence between 
the wants of man and the structure of the earth. Rivers 
and oceans have become the highways of the world. 
But in regard of these provisions of nature, the treaty 
of independence gave to our republic the vast and fruit- 
ful territory which now composes the eight states be- 
tween the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi, and 
yet cut off all this western country from its obvious 
channel of communication with the commercial world. 
The thirty-first parallel of latitude, which was assigned 
as the boundary on the south, shut out, or rather shut 
in, the Western States from the ocean. Spain having 
acquired the country round the Gulf of Mexico, held a 
power which was inconsistent with the interests and ne- 
cessities of the citizens of the United States in the west. 
She had her hand upon the great aorta of their circula- 
tion, and frequently made them feel its pressure. The 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 375 

United States had, indeed, made treaties with her respect- 
ing the commercial interests of the west, but Spanish go- 
vernors often violated them ; and while our republic was 
negotiating for redress, the western people were suffering. 
Nor were they blind to their interests, or disposed to 
suffer in silence. They sent up frequent and earnest ap- 
peals for the protection of our government ; and ru- 
mours, originating in suspicion, began to float about that 
their interests were alienating their affections from their 
brethren in the east, and pointing towards the organiza- 
tion of a new republic in the west, whose first business 
would be to negotiate or conquer a free use of the Mis- 
sissippi. The public ear was frequently saluted with 
reports of expeditions planned from the west against 
Mexico, against Orleans, and against other points of the 
Spanish possessions. The common basis of all this 
claim was at the mouth of the Mississippi. That strip 
of land being under Spanish control, agitated all the 
west, and created serious apprehensions in the east. 

Such a state of affairs was intolerable. The perma- 
nence of our institutions, and their extension in a com- 
bined system upon this continent, required that the evil 
should be removed. Propositions were made, and se- 
riously debated in Congress, to seize upon Orleans by 
force, and open to the ocean that communication which 
was essential to the wants of the west, and which had 
been interrupted by Spain. But the course of affairs in 
Europe took such a direction, that the United States ac- 
quired by negotiation not only the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi, but all the vast region of country which lies be- 
tween that river and the far ^ far west. Viewed in re- 
ference to these circumstances, the purchase of Louisiana 
in 1803 was an affair of the greatest consequence to our 
republic ; for, while it quieted the fears of the people 



376 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

of the west, it brought a great addition of strength to 
the nation. This strength was derived not so much from 
the increase of territory as from the acquisition of an 
outlet for the trade of the interior. 

But what was Louisiana .'' We have frequently re- 
ferred to its fortunes in the previous lectures, and have 
space to add but little more concerning it. Go back to 
a very remote American antiquity — go back a whole 
century from the present time, and what is Louisiana } 
The name then designated all the interior of America, 
having Canada on the north, the Alleghenies on the 
east, and extending westward — as far as it extended. 
Shadowy and vast enough, it is true ; but this was the 
meaning of Louisiana in the French language. In Eng- 
lish it did not mean quite so much. After the seven 
years' war, and the peace of 1763, this territory was 
driven to the western side of the Mississippi, except near 
the mouth of that river, where it extended across and 
rested its dimly defined eastern corner on the "line of 
the Perdido." According to this geography, it had the 
Canada line on the north at the forty-ninth parallel of 
latitude, the Mississippi on the east, the Gulf of Mexico 
and the Spanish possessions on the south, while towards 
the west it stretched away over the prairies, mountains, 
rivers, and deserts, towards the setting sun. With these 
dimensions it was transferred from France to Spain in 
1763 ; with these dimensions it w^as retransferred to 
France in 1800, and with these dimensions it was ceded 
by France to the United States in 1803. 

The troubled state of Europe threw this prize into 
the possession of our republic. Napoleon had acquired 
it from Spain ; but the prospect of a war with England, 
and the earnest language of our republic upon the sub- 
ject of the outlet at the mouth of the Mississippi, in- 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 377 

(luced him to transfer the whole of Louisiana to the 
United States. He saw the impossibility of defending 
it against England, in the approaching collision with that 
power, and to prevent it from falling into her grasp, he 
ceded it — granted, bargained, and sold it to our republic. 
By this purchase the remainder of the magnificent 
valley of the Mississippi was added to the United States, 
and the territorial extent of our government nearly 
doubled. From the first discovery of that region by the 
French, they had endeavoured to colonize it ; and hopes 
were entertained that it would speedily become the 
brightest jewel that adorned the crown of the sons of 
St. Louis. They expended vast suras of money in anx- 
ious attempts to give it a population, and render it a 
prosperous and productive country. Towards it were 
directed the anxious eyes of private adventurers and 
princely patrons, while the burning imagination of in- 
terested and credulous men beheld rich mines of gold, 
cultivated fields, and populous cities, dispersed over its 
ample surface. But it seems that the tastes, and habits, 
and whole life and temperament of the French, were 
unsuited to a residence in the vast solitudes of the 
western wilderness. The nature of the country required 
its colonization to be undertaken by men who could en- 
dure to live for weeks and months, and even years, away 
from the companionship of others, and who could find 
in the excitement of the chase, in the labour of the field, 
or in a contest with the Indians, full and pleasing em- 
ployment for all the energies of mind and body. But 
of all men on the face of the earth, the Frenchman is, 
perhaps, the least adapted to the life of a backwoods- 
man. His inclinations and habits continually direct him 
to society as the source of his enjoyments. When 
transplanted to the valley of the Mississippi, and left 
2i* 



378 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

alone in the vast forests and extensive solitudes of na- 
ture, he felt within his heart an aching void which could 
not be filled by all the magnificence with which he was 
surrounded. He sighed for the companionship of his 
ancient neighbour, grew melancholy as he listened to 
the howl of the wild beast' — found no solace even when 
a grand chorus of frogs sent up from lake and pond their 
imited music to hail the returning spring ; but directing 
his thoughts away from the w^ildness about him, he pined 
away under a Nostalgia' — a patriotic back-ache — an ear- 
nest yearning to return to his native land. Such a man 
was most eminently disqualified for the work of cutting 
down the great trees, cleaning out the marshes, and 
changing the forests of Louisiana into a cultivated coun- 
try. He contrasted most singularly with the Anglo-Saxon 
pioneer, who readily becomes a most efficient man in the 
woods, and acquires almost immediately a taste for roam- 
ing through the forests, and for living through weeks and 
months with few or no companions. This natural dis- 
position of the French retarded their settlements in the 
valley of the Mississippi. Vast sums of money were 
expended by speculators in France, in the vain hope of 
building up the colony ; but notwithstanding the millions 
that were lavished upon it, Louisiana remained nearly 
as nature made it — a great wilderness. Its French po- 
pulation continued sparse ; their presence being mani- 
fested only in a few districts on the coast, and in a few 
settlements in the interior, while here and there a mili- 
tary post was the only symbol of their possession of the 
country. After its transfer to Spain in 1763, the French 
inhabitants which it contained continued in their posses- 
sions, and very reluctantly became Spanish subjects. 
During the thirty-seven years that it remained in posses- 
sion of Spain, it made some progress in population. 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 379 

The Spanish laws and institutions were introduced with- 
out much regard to their inappropriateness to the con- 
dition of the people ; and the original French inhabitants 
and their descendants, sighed for a release from the do- 
minion under which they were placed. They were ac- 
cordingly well pleased when the changes in Europe re- 
transferred them first to France ; but not so well pleased 
with their transfer to the United States. They ac- 
quiesced, however, in the arrangement which gave them 
promise of becoming citizens of our republic. Napoleon 
seems to have beheld some dimly defined and gigantic 
visions of this fruitful region. But he saw that the new- 
born peace of Amiens was ready to expire, the notes of 
warlike preparation in England w-ere sounding in his 
ears ; and his pictures of grandeur in America faded 
away as he beheld English ships ready to sail to the Mis- 
sissippi and deprive him for ever of Louisiana. To pre- 
vent this last result he transferred it to the United States. 

And yet this extraordinary man, carefully, paternally, 
stipulated that the inhabitants of Louisiana should be- 
come citizens of our republic, and be in due time dis- 
tributed into states and admitted into the Union, and 
that in the meantime they should be protected in the en- 
joyment of their liberty, property, and religion. He 
specifically directed these provisions to be inserted in the 
treaty of cession, and thereby made arrangements that 
his French subjects in Louisiana should have the benefit 
of the laws and constitution of our republic. 

Napoleon directed this — the graceless despot ! 

In the dispensations of Divine Providence, the bad 
and angry passions of man are often connected with re- 
sults most beneficial to the human race. The bad temper 
existing between the rulers of France and Great Britain 
at the commencement of the present century, produced 



380 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

a sensation over the whole world, being felt by the Cos- 
sack in the depths of Russia, and by the Indian at the 
base of the Rocky Mountains. Our country suffered, 
many evils from this source ; but the acquisition of Lou- 
isiana, which was brought about by the agency of the 
same unholy passions, conferred an inestimable benefit 
upon the United States. This purchase not only added 
three hundred millions of acres to the territory of our 
government, but, what was of the greatest importance, 
it quieted the fears of the western people in regard to the 
navigation of the Mississippi, and established in part the 
natural boundaries of our country. It left the great 
artery of the west to carry nourishment to the people of 
the interior, and bound them more firmly to the Union. 
It removed the boundary from the Mississippi to the far 
west, and opened a fertile and well watered country to 
the influence of our republican institutions. 

Since the time that Louisiana came into the posses- 
sion of the United States, it has progressed rapidly in 
population and wealth. Already the states of Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, have been carved out of 
it, three of which have been added to the Union, and 
the fourth stands ready, awaiting some subsidiary regu- 
lations to become a member of the republic. But still 
a magnificent portion of the Louisiana purchase remains 
uninhabited. The upper Mississippi on the western 
side, is yet in a great measure without a population — 
vast tracts of land remaining there in the primeval wild- 
ness of nature. The country around the heads of this 
river, and extending from it to the fountains of the Mis- 
souri at the base of the Rocky Mountains, is perhaps 
the most finely watered region in the world, being 
studded with lakes and intersected all over with rivulets 
whose waters, winding towards every point of the com- 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. ' 381 

pass, constantly converge towards the main streams, and 
flowing into the great river of the west, speed their way 
through varied climates from north to south, and finally 
roll their accumulated floods into the ocean, four thou- 
sand miles away from their source. Prairies and pla- 
teaux, and ridges of hills occasionally vary this land of 
springs, and afibrd ranges for herds of butraloes, grizly 
bears, and wandering Indians. This unpopulated re- 
gion, the still untamed part of the Louisiana purchase, 
affords ample space out of which to erect twenty new 
states. The current of emigration is continually flowing 
towards it; and while the Eastern States send thither 
their pioneers with their democratic notions and their re- 
publican institutions, the overflowing millions of Europe 
stream in the same direction, and settling down at dif- 
ferent points between the Atlantic coast and the Rocky 
Mountains, mix and amalgamate with the American peo- 
ple, and sw^ell the tide that is moving towards the head 
waters of the Missouri. Already more than a million 
of inhabitants are dispersed over the states and terri- 
tories west of the Mississippi, and millions more can 
yet be accommodated in that vast reservoir. There, 
whether derived from Europe or by natural increase, 
they will coalesce with the present population of our 
country. The old French and Spanish settlers are ra- 
pidly losing their peculiar characteristics. Time will 
smelt, fuse, and confuse the habits, languages, and di- 
versities of all others who may come hither, into a single 
mass, and form a population entirely American in its 
character. Our institutions are already spread far into 
the Louisiana purchase ; and while that great tract of 
country in the possesion of our government forms a 
barrier against encroachments from the British on the 
north, and the Spaniards on the south, it also opens a 



382 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

field for the wider and yet wider extension of our re- 
publican system. 

III. The next geographical extension of the United 
States was in Florida, an acquisition that was made in 
1819. In ancient Spanish geography, Florida embraced 
not only the peninsula that now bears that name, but all 
the Atlantic declivity from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, or Canada, on the north. The 
well founded claims of England, however, interfered 
with these far-reaching boundaries ; and the several At- 
lantic colonies gradually clipped away the head and body 
of Florida, and left merely the tail to project out south- 
ward into the ocean. Its Spanish sovereigns were not, 
indeed, entirely contented to be driven so far towards 
the south ; and various manifestations of their desire to 
extend northward and westward shine out at intervals 
through the long space of nearly three hundred years. 
From 1763 to 1783, the country — Florida with its pre- 
sent dimensions — was in the possession of Great Britain ; 
but was restored to Spain at the general pacification which 
established American independence. After that time its 
northern limit on the Atlantic " was clear and unquestion- 
able ;" but towards the west the Spaniards averred that it 
extended towards the Mississippi, and sweeping round 
towards the northwest, cut deep into the region that now 
lies within the states of Alabama and Mississippi. The 
United States resisted these claims of tlie Spaniards, and 
alleged that the Ijouisiana purchase extended on the 
Gulf of Mexico from the river Perdido, on the east of the 
Mississippi, to the Rio Grande. Various collisions oc- 
curred between the two governments in consequence of 
these conflicting pretensions. The United States finally 
took possession of this debatable land in 1810, and the 
Perdido became the western boundary of Florida. Du- 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 383 

ring the administration of Mr. Jefferson, various efforts 
were made to obtain Florida ; and the exphcit instruc- 
tions to the American plenipotentiaries, who negotiated 
the purchase of Louisiana, directed them to procure tlie 
mouth of the Mississippi and Florida. These instruc- 
tions were given under the impression that France had 
the disposal of this desirable tract of land ; but when it 
was found that Spain still retained it, application was 
made to her, but made without success. The possession 
of this territory by the Spaniards, was soon found to be 
entirely inconsistent with the peace and security of the 
southern border of the United States. In the actual re- 
lations of Great Britain to Spain, and'to our own country, 
it became the rendezvous of the enemies of our re- 
public ; and in the war of 1812, and again in the Semi- 
nole war of 1817, it was found necessary for the Ame- 
rican armies to invade Florida in order to reach the 
head-quarters of the hostile savages. The difficulties 
arising from these various interferences with national 
rights, and neutral rights, and Indian rights, kept the 
southern border of our country in unceasing alarm, and 
seriously endangered the amicable relations between the 
tw^o governments. After various efforts made to termi- 
nate these contentions, a treaty was concluded in 1819 
by which the United States came into peaceable posses- 
sion of the desired country. 

Florida has rapidly improved since it came under the 
control of the United States, and has recently been raised 
to the dignity of a state, and now forms a member of 
the Union. 

The acquisition of this region was of great benefit to 
our republic, inasmuch as it made the ocean, and not 
the Spaniards, the limit on the southeast. It furnished 
the natural boundary of our country in that direction ; 



384 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

for the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic are evidently 
the natural boundaries of the United States on the south- 
east, inasmuch as many of the rivers in that quarter flow 
through Florida, and carry out and bring back the ma- 
terial of the internal wealth of the country. The interest 
of the western and southwestern states demand the un- 
limited use of the waters that flow from them — a use 
which they could not have in peace so long as the Spa- 
nish forts and flag were seen at the mouths of these 
streams. But the treaty of limits with Spain in 1819 
transferred this country with its soil and sovereignty to 
the United States, and gave to the inhabitants of the in- 
terior a more free communication with the ocean. 

IV. The next geographical extension of the United 
States was in the annexation of Texas. The party dis- 
cussion in which this measure has been so recently in- 
volved, prohibits us from speaking of its policy at this 
time. And even if such a cause of silence did not exist, 
the animated and elaborate investigation of the subject, 
still fresh in the public mind, renders any details re- 
specting it at present unnecessary. We will therefore 
content ourselves with a synopsis of the general course 
of the arguments by which this addition to our republic 
has been opposed and advocated. Such a summary is 
sufficient for our purpose. 

The opponents of annexation relied upon the follow- 
ing objections: 

1st. The United States has territory enough without 
Texas. 

2d. The addition of this region will give a prepon- 
derance to the slave-holding interest of the south and 
southwest. 

3d. It will endanger the Union by extending it in 
such a direction that the slave-holding states may be 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 385 

tempted to dissolve their present connexions, and orga- 
nize a southwestern repubhc. 

4th. It will be of no advantage to the rest of the 
Union in a moral point of view, inasmuch as Texas, 
instead of being a land flowing with milk and honey, 
is a land overflowed with hard cases. 

5th. Mexico has claims upon Texas, never having 
acknowledged its independence, and until she makes 
such a recognition the incorporation of it into our re- 
public is inconsistent with the amicable relations between 
the United States and that government. 

6th. Its annexation is a violation of the Consitution 
of the United States, inasmuch as that instrument confers 
no power upon the general government to acquire foreign 
territory. 

This last objection was urged with much earnestness, 
and stood in a class by itself; the other five objections 
here enumerated forming another class, and having re- 
ference to the policy or expediency of the measures. 
They were of course deemed unanswerable by those 
who presented them. 

On the other hand, the advocates of annexation pre- 
sented the following views : 

In regard to the constitutional objection, they met it 
by a direct denial, and asserted that the annexation would 
be no violation of that instrument. They alleged that 
the constitution does not prevent the general government 
fi'om adding foreign territory to the United States ; and 
they pointed to the purchase of Louisiana and Florida, 
which had already been made, and asserted that if they 
were constitutional, so also would be the annexation of 
Texas. 

In reply to the other class of objections, namely, 
2k 



386 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

those that deny the policy of the measure, they advanced 
the followmg considerations : 

1st. There is no danger of a dissolution of the Union 
arising from the extension of territory towards the south- 
west. 

2d. National defence requires us to secure this region, 
for, if Texas be not incorporated with the United States, 
it will, in all probability become an appendage to some 
European power, who will annoy us as the Spaniards 
did in Florida. It is perhaps unnecessary to add that 
Great Britain was singled out as that power. 

3d. Slavery in the United States with Texas annexed 
will be no more extensive than it is independently of 
that territory, for though it may be established in that 
region it will thereby be drawn away from the more 
Northern States. 

4th. Texas is a land of promise, with a soil fertile 
and well watered. Bounded by the Sabine on the east, 
and by the Rio Grande del Norte, or Great North river on 
the west, and intersected by the Colorado and Brasos, 
and other streams, it abounds in facilities for agriculture, 
and will speedily become a rich, populous, and produc- 
tive state, increasing the revenues to the general treasury 
and forming a barrier of defence, and a most desirable 
addition to the strength of the Union. 

5th. It is settled principally by emigrants from the 
United States, who carried with them our institutions, and 
are well fitted to form an enterprising and industrious 
state. 

6th, It was really included in the Louisiana purchase 
and was improperly severed from our country by the 
treaty with Spain in 1819, which gave us Florida and 
defined our limit on the southwest ; consequently its an- 
nexation will be merely a restoration of territory which 
once belonged to our republic. 



" ' GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 387 

■ i 

7th. Finally, Mexico has no just claim upon the 
country, Texas having been for several years an inde- 
pendent state, and capable of disposing of herself accord- 
ing to her own views of policy. 

Such are the main arguments by which this increase 
of territory was opposed and advocated. The usual 
fate of all party discussions attended tliese opposite views, 
the arguments in favour of annexation being regarded 
as perfectly visionary by one class of men, and the argu- 
ments in opposition to it being treated as equally vision- 
ary by another class of men. The territory was annexed, 
and Texas has her place among the states of the Union. 

By these several acquisitions of Louisiana, Florida 
and Texas, the United States, which at the adoption of 
the constitution were limited by the Mississippi on the 
west and by the thirty-first parallel of latitude on the 
south, gradually expanded to the Rocky Mountains, to 
the Gulf of Mexico, and to the Great North river on the 
soutliwest. These additions have put our Republic in 
possession of all the great valley of the interior of North 
America. Here is a region sufficient for a vast empire, 
much of which has been added to the territory of our 
country since our national organization. That republic 
which began on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies first 
extended itself beyond that ridge of hills, then it spread 
itself to the Mississippi, then it crossed that river, then 
it pushed itself to the Gulf of Mexico, and now it has 
made another movement towards the southwest. By 
these several advances it has gained its natural boun- 
daries on the south and southwest, and has nothing more 
to seek or to desire in that direction. Towards the west 
it has crossed the Rocky mountains and dipped its wings 
in the Pacific. 

V. Another geographical extension of the United 



388 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

States, and the last which we have to notice, is in the 
far-famed territory of Oregon. We call it far-famed, 
for its renown has penetrated to every log-cabin in the 
United States ; and the national legislature, the public 
press, and the chambers of diplomacy, have just finished 
their discussions respecting our " clear and unquestion- 
able" title to this region. It would therefore be both 
ungracious and unprofitable again to drag before the 
public the aching bones of this belaboured subject. A 
few words upon it will serve our purpose. 

By Oregon is now understood the middle section of 
the western slope of North America, lying between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, having Mexico on the 
south, and the notorious forty-ninth parallel of latitude 
on the north. The United States hold this territory by 
virtue of a triangular title, one corner of which rests on 
the Mexican line towards the south, another on the Lou- 
isiana purchase towards the east, and the third on the 
mouth of the Columbia river, discovered by Captain 
Gray in 1792. In other words, the United States either 
acquired Oregon from Spain by force of the treaty of 
1819, or they acquired it by the discovery of the Co- 
lumbia river, and the subsequent explorations and settle- 
ments in the country, or it was included within Lou- 
isiana, and became the property of our government by 
the purchase of that territory from France. But on 
whatever corner of the triangle the title of our republic 
rests, whether on the Spanish treaty, the Louisana pur- 
chase, or the discovery of the Columbia, or on them all 
taken together, the fact, and the main important fact 
which we now care to notice is, that Oregon, with the 
boundaries just mentioned, has become and is a portion 
or territory of the United States. Nor is it a useless 
portion. Already emigrants, many of them natives of 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION. 389 

our country, have found their way through the gates of 
the Rocky Mountains, and have iixed their abodes in 
the valleys of this far, far west region. Thither they 
are carrying the elements of European civilization, and 
the institutions, languages, and whole social and political 
life of our republic. Several states may be organized 
out of this new territory, whose addition to the Union 
will give to the United States a commanding and de- 
sirable position on the shores of the Pacific. From that 
remote quarter of our country the commerce of Asia 
may be reached with facility, and the glowing visions of 
the early navigators may yet be realized. They will be 
realized, though not so much by having found a route to 
the Indies as by the fact that, when our institutions 
are firmly established in Oregon, the Americanized Eu- 
ropean race will have progressed westward until Asia 
furnishes their nearest foreign market. 

But another result may follow, which the early navi- 
gators and their patrons neither saw in vision nor rea- 
soned out by enlarged views of the state of mankind. 
The result to which I refer may be stated briefly, as fol- 
lows : 

The popular institutions, and the arts, sciences, mo- 
rals, and religion of the American people being extended 
beyond the Rocky Mountains, and planted along the 
shores of the Pacific, may be gradually transferred to the 
Asiatic coast, and the race of Shem be changed into 
Christians and Democrats. Oregon may thus become a 
most important position in the geographical progress of 
civilization. It will be the high tower from which 
the artillery of Christianity may be levelled against the 
paganism of the Old World, and from which the de- 
mocracy of the west may advance with renewed youth 
2k* 



390 



PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



into the ancient seats of Asiatic legitimacy. The pre- 
sent generation may pass away before this result begins 
to develope itself; but already the accumulated waves 
of emigration are carrying thousands to the valleys on 
the west of the Rocky Mountains, and soon the wilder- 
ness of Oregon will become a land of fruitful fields, 
where agriculture, commerce, and manufactures will 
flourish, and where the arts of peace and the refinements 
of life will be cultivated. Civilization having reposed 
for a season upon the shores of the Pacific, will send 
her sweet influences still onward towards the setting sun, 
and diffiise her blessings among the many millions of 
Oriental Asia. 

We have now reviewed the geographical progress of 
the United States. The actual republic has travelled 
from the ridge of the Alleghanies away towards the base 
of the Rocky Mountains, and the vast valley of the in- 
terior has added state after state to the Union. Every 
year has witnessed a new step in this march of our in- 
stitutions. A synopsis of the additions that have been 
made to the old thirteen Revolutionary states, exhibits 
the following array of names and figures. 

The states already formed out of the territory recog- 
nised as belonging to our republic at the close of the 
Revolution, are 



Vermont, . 




admitted into the Union 






A.D 


1791 


Kentucky, . 




It (t i( 






t ( 


1792 


Tennessee, . 
















1796 


Ohio, . . . 
















1802 


Indiana, . . 
















1816 


Mississippi, 
















1817 


Illinois, . . 
















1818 


Alabama, . 
















1819 


Maine, . . 
















1820 


Michigan, . 
















1837 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 391 

The states already formed out of the territory of the 
Louisiana purchase, are 

Louisiana, . . . admitted into the Union in .... 1812. 

Missouri, . . . . " " " 1820. 

Arkansas, . . . . " " " 1836. 

Iowa, " " " 1845. 

The states formed out of the other territorial acquisi- 
tions of our government are 

Florida, .... admitted into the Union in .... 1845. 

Texas, " " " 1845. 

The population of the above sixteen states is at pre- 
sent about nine millions. 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 

But suppose years have passed by, and the waste 
lands in the great west have become cultivated and co- 
vered with an industrious population, it is a most inter- 
esting inquiry to ask. By what means, or agencies, or in- 
fluences, are these many millions to be retained in a single 
republic ? Do not all created things tend continually 
to dissolution ? The nations of the Old World, where 
are they .'' Where is the nation that is two thousand years 
old } Where is the nation that is one thousand years 
old ? Races of men have been perpetuated through nu- 
merous centuries ; but nations appear upon the stage, 
play their part, and when their work is done, they are 
resolved into their original elements. Is our republic 
too to pass suddenly away .'' Or if hopes of its perma- 
nence exist, on what are they founded .'* 



392 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Without pretending to enumerate all the influences 
which combine to preserve our government, we think 
the main elements of its perpetuity and progress are 
contained in the moral, political, and mechanical en- 
ginery with which it is surrounded and pervaded. 
These three classes of means we think warrant the hope 
that our system of government will be permanent, and 
sufficient for the immense population that will in time 
congregate within its limits. 

In the moral class of influences may be enumerated 
education, religion, uniformity of language, laws, and 
habits, and the dispersion of near family relations through 
different and distant states. 

In the political class stand the federative system and 
the ballot-box. 

In the mechanical class of influences may be enu- 
merated the power of steam, the facilities of travelling, 
the public press, the rapid communication of intelligence, 
the improvements in the arts, &,c. 

A developement of almost any one of these influ- 
ences, in its effects upon the destiny of the human race, 
would of itself require a volume, and indeed upon many 
of them volumes have been written. Allow us cursorily 
— with almost enigmatical brevity — to present a few de- 
tails respecting them in their connexion with our republic. 

I. The first class of influences — the moral class — em- 
bracing education and religion, has in all its branches a 
conservative force, which though silent, is most effica- 
cious in binding together the different interests of our 
country. 

(1.) Education has diffused and is diffusing its light 
among all the millions that have congregated within the 
limits of the United States. I do not refer merely to 
that education which in a few chosen seats of learning 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 393 

makes men acquainted with the higher sciences. Though 
this education is exerting a great power upon our coun- 
try, it is comparatively a small item in the aggregate of 
the nation's intellectual discipline. The developement 
of mind in the United States is in fact the work of a 
system of instruction both private and public, which is 
practised all over the country, and which makes its voice 
heard in universities, in colleges, in academies, in semi- 
naries, in private families, in workshops, in brick school 
houses, and in log cabin school houses, where the day- 
light struggles translucently in through well oiled paper. 
This however is only elementary instruction — the mere 
beginning of knowledge, and of intellectual cultivation. 
The education of a citizen of the United States is a work 
which progresses through all his threescore and ten years, 
and which is greatly promoted by his unceasing attention 
to the daily action of the political system. The public 
mind — that great aggregate of twenty millions of indi- 
vidual minds — receives from this primary and progi-essive 
instruction an intelligence and discipline which prepares 
and disposes it to preserve the liberties and the govern- 
ment which have been inherited from the revolutionary 
fathers. 

(2.) Religion is another moral influence which exerts 
a conservative power upon our republic. The various 
governments of the Old World, both Pagan and Chris- 
tian, ancient and modern, believed that the welfare of 
society required the state to take religion under its espe- 
cial protection. What was the result ? Socrates drank 
the hemlock, Paul was crucified,"and millions have been 
sacrificed because they would not sacrifice as the state 
commanded. But in our republican system, the church 
is divorced from the state, and yet the Christian religion 
pervades the land. The American people feel no alarm 



394 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

for its safety, for they believe that it is heavenly in origin, 
is adapted to the nature of man, and contains within 
itself the elements of its own perpetuity. Seventy 
years experience have most fully convinced them that 
both its purity and its power are better preserved by 
leaving it to the voluntary guardianship of each indi- 
vidual ; and we certainly express the opinion of the 
whole country when we say that an union of church and 
state would be one of the most grievous curses that 
could be inflicted upon our nation. Christianity is, 
however, the broad basis of hope to those who study the 
actual and prospective condition of the United States. 
Its diffusion and its mighty energy constitutes it a relia- 
ble hope. Its still small voice is heard in the stately 
Gothic pile that adorns the mercantile city, and it is 
heard in the little wooden church that peeps out among 
tlie forest trees on the mountain side. But churches are 
not religion, and kneeling is not devotion. The true 
representative of religion in America is to be found in 
the correct life of the great mass of our citizens. We 
say this not because all are Christians, not because all 
are virtuous, and not because all obey the divine laws ; 
but we say it because Christianity manifests its presence 
over the land in the restraints which it imposes upon the 
evil passions of all our citizens, and in the exemplary 
conduct of the thousands who make its precepts the 
rule of life. Its conservative influence in our republican 
system is at present every where felt. But let us look 
away from the present, and as we gaze into the remote 
future, the same Religion not only reveals sublime and 
glorious visions of endless life in Heaven, but it also 
appears as the great moral regenerator of man upon 
earth. Its increasing power upon the practical life of 
the American people will render them more capable of 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 395 

preserving and perpetuating the popular institutions 
of the country. Their Christianity will improve their 
Democracy. 

(3.) Another conservative influence of the moral class 
is the uniformity of habits, laws, and language that ex- 
ists throughout the land. The present population of the 
United States has been gathered out of all the nations of 
Europe ; and yet it forms but a single people. The lan- 
guage, laws, and habits of the Anglo-Saxons, modified 
by the circumstances of the country, here predominate 
over all others. Frenchmen are here, Germans are 
here, Spaniards are here ; every corner of Europe has 
its representatives here ; but through them all and above 
them all, the English language prevails, the English 
common law is the basis of the state and national juris- 
prudence, while the habits, the manners, and customs 
of the whole country are in the main of Anglican 
origin. Local diversities indeed appear ; but take the 
whole country as it actually is, and we have the unifor- 
mity just mentioned. The frequent dispersion of mem- 
bers of the same family into different sections of the 
country, greatly contributes to this uniformity, and ex- 
erts a powerful influence in favour of the Union. Com- 
merce and the innumerable interests of private life, send 
one member of a family to the north, another to the west, 
and another to the south. "Who has not brothers or sis- 
ters, or near family connexions out of the state in which 
he resides ? This dispersion, this constant motion, this 
literal circulation of the blood of the country, has a pow- 
erful influence in binding together the American people, 
and will henceforth be a mighty power in preserving the 
Union. 

II. But there is a second class of conservative influ- 



396 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ences — the political class — which is worthy of more than 
the passing notice that we can now bestow upon it. 

(1.) The federative principle, the elemental principle 
of our political system, is that the states severally have 
the management of their local affairs, while the general 
government takes care of those interests that are common 
to the whole country. This plan distributes the locd 
legislation to the districts where it is needed, and draws 
away from the national government innumerable cares 
and subjects of excitement. Such a principle gives to 
the Union several peculiar organic properties ; one of 
the most remarkable of which is an indefinite expansi- 
bility. State after state has been added, and millions 
after millions have become citizens ; and yet the political 
machinery has the same easy action with which it moved 
in its early days. We believe that the addition of other 
states and of other millions can be made without incur- 
ring the dangers of an overgrown political body. 

(2.) Nor are the evils that may appear in the action 
of the system, evils without remedy. The state consti- 
tutions may be amended and modified as the people of 
the state desire ; the only restriction being that each 
state shall remain, in good faith, a republic. The na- 
tional constitution may also be modified where its action 
becomes injurious. But, beside these provisions for 
changing the constitutions, the people at the ballot-box 
have the power of correcting the evils that may arise 
from the improper management of the government, 
whether they appear in the state or in the national ad- 
ministration. In nations where ofiSces are hereditary, 
the correction of an abuse is often a revolution. To free 
the countiy from a bad prince or wicked officer his head 
must be cut oflT— his real head of flesh and blood, and 
bone and muscle, must be removed. In this cut-throat 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 397 

way the English corrected the abuses of Charles I., and 
the French in revolutionary days sought release from the 
oppressions of their government by destroying their 
princes. But in the United States there is a species of 
decapitation by the ballot-box, which merely cuts off a 
man's head politically, and leaves him all his actual 
top-gear just as nature made it. This is much the 
most quick and harmless process, and is quite as effica- 
cious as the regicidal revolutionary guillotining which in 
legitimate governments destroys the prince in order to 
escape from his tyranny. In the United States the popu- 
lar vote is the main engine for correcting abuses ; but 
its action is powerful, and a knowledge of its power dis- 
poses the people quietly to abide its decision. This 
sure and effective method of redressing grievances, either 
real or imaginary, brings increased strength into our go- 
vernment, and has a direct tendency to insure its per- 
petuity. 

III. The third and last class of influences — the me- 
chanical class — embracing the public press, the power 
of steam, the improvements in the arts, &c., has a great 
and direct power in preserving and perpetuating our 
republican system in all its geographical and numerical 
extension. 

*• (1.) Many of the friends of our government appre- 
hended that it would in time be in danger of dissolution 
from too great an extension of territory, and too great an 
accumulation of interfering interests. But the power of 
steam has in many respects almost annihilated space. 
The great rivers intersecting our country in all directions 
furnish highways for communication from one point to 
another, and steam-power brings the north and the south, 
the east and the west into close proximity. The Missis- 
sippi and its numerous branches are almost all navigable 
2l 



398 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

through their entire lengths, with the exception of one 
or two hundred miles from their sources. These chan- 
nels — the canals cut by mighty Nature's hand — intersect 
all the great valley of the interior from the Alleghany to 
the Rocky Mountains, and steamboats may ascend the 
current on voyages varying from two thousand to thirty- 
five hundred miles. These natural highways and the 
power of steam applied to navigate them, connect the 
remotest corners of this valley, and unite its interests 
and its resources. The same power is applied upon the 
rivers and bays along the coast of the Atlantic, and even 
the winds and waves of the ocean have recently yielded 
to its all-conquering might. But where the natural 
channels fail the hand of man has been applied, and 
rail-roads have been constructed which intersect the 
country in various directions, and afford new scope to 
the mighty power of steam. The rail-road car and the 
steamboat have thus combined to bring the remote points 
of the country together, and through them distance 
ceases to be an impediment to the action of government. 
The most recent calculations announce that the journey 
from New York to the mouth of the Columbia on the 
Pacific, can be made at rail-road speed in five days — a 
length of time which not many years ago was consumed 
in travelling from Boston to Baltimore. By this appli- 
cation of steam power the settled limits of the country 
approach each other much more rapidly in time than 
they recede in space. Other improvements may perhaps 
be made in the application of this agent, and distance 
may be yet more rapidly traversed. The transcendental 
philosophers who first announced that space was merely 
an idea — nay, not even an idea but pure, sheer, down- 
right nothing — most probably were favoured with some 
presentiments of the power of steam ; for it has for many 



" CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 399 

practical purposes annihilated space. By increasing the 
facilities for travelling, and by destroying the barriers of 
mountains and made extended plains, it has exerted and 
it will continue to exert a mighty conservative influence 
upon the United States. 

(2.) But what shall we say of the public press in its 
connexion with our republic ? Blessed be Guttemberg 
and Faust ! Little did those primitive type-cutters, four 
hundred long years ago, imagine that they were finding 
out an art which, being carried to this new continent, 
would here become the powerful engine of commerce, 
justice, government, praise, flattery, reviling, quackery, 
ribaldry, and all the good and evil passions of our na- 
ture. Yet such has been the result. By the favour of 
printing, mankind, and especially the mankind of the 
United States, are no longer left to grope along through 
the impenetrable darkness of space and time, exposed, 
unarmed to the plots of wily politicians. The press has 
here become a new engine — a new power in human go- 
vernment. Newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, reviews, 
and their various modifications, transmit information in 
every direction in a readable form, and at a cheap price. 
And though like many of the rivers of the west, they 
often hold in solution much slimy and filthy matter, they 
are invaluable agents for the communication of know- 
ledge. It is often said that they are the means of evil 
as well as of good ; but the evil they do is small, and 
the good invaluable. The thousands of printing presses 
distributed over the United States, act as centres of illu- 
mination, from which light flows oflf to every recess of 
the land. Daily and weekly they report the action of 
our government, both in its state branches and in its 
great central head. They collect and distribute infor- 
mation touching the interests of commerce, agriculture. 



400 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

manufactures, religion, and the innumerable and com- 
plicated affairs of the people. Discussion is free, print- 
ing is cheap, and the sound sense of the public is the 
only censorship. What is the result ? Enter the stately 
mansion in the commercial city, and the newspaper is 
there ; enter the farm-house, and the newspaper is there ; 
enter the little hut on the mountain, and there too is the 
ubiquitary newspaper. It is read in every township, and 
town, and hamlet: read by the farmer, the mechanic, 
and the cabman. By this diffusion of intelligence the 
people acquire a knowledge of public affairs, a know- 
ledge that is more or less perfect, according to the degree 
of early education and the habits of life. The manner 
in which this information is communicated is also de- 
sirable. For in the newspaper system, intelligence, no 
matter how exciting, generally reaches individuals at 
their homes or when engaged in their usual employ- 
ments. Hence reason has time to act, passion loses its 
food, and the dangers of large assemblies are avoided. 
In all these and other ways, the public press exerts an 
immense conservative influence upon the institutions of 
the United States. 

(3.) The various improvements in the arts also have 
been favourable to our country. Since the American 
Revolution, human ingenuity, by a little well-contrived 
machinery, has seized the powers of nature, and set 
them to spin, and weave, and plane, and saw, and cut, 
and pound ; and much of the ancient work of human 
hands has been committed to cords, and wire, and iron 
shafts. The magnetic telegraph outstrips the power of 
steam, and conveys intelligence with the lightning itself. 
In brief, the various arts of life have gone on towards 
perfection. This rapid advancement — these numerous 
changes have, in the Old World, produced effects pene- 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 401 

trating deep into the frame-work of society. There they 
have unsettled the habits of former generations ; but 
here, where everything has been growing and progress- 
ing, they work in with the flexible occupations of the 
people ; and, what is a consideration of the gravest im- 
port, they have, in the main, a tendency to bring to- 
gether — to centralize — to harmonize the conflicting in- 
terests of different sections of the country. 

These are the main influences by whose combined 
action our republican system will be perpetuated, and 
to them we trust for its future progress and permanence. 
If these foundations be destroyed, we have no others on 
which to build. 

The dangers to which our government is exposed, 
arise in a great part from the large extent of country, 
from the conflicts of opposing interests, and from the 
possibility of corruption gaining the ascendency over 
honesty and patriotism. But these dangers will, we trust, 
be averted by the conservative influences which we have 
enumerated. The widely separated portions of country 
are by steam-power and electricity brought together; 
and by their agency within the United States, space has 
ceased to retard the action of government. The same 
agencies have also diminished the diflliculties arising from 
the conflicting interests of distant sections of the country. 
But what shall we say of the danger to which our re- 
public is exposed from the evil passions of our nature ? 
May not corruption, which besets all men, societies, and 
nations, creep into the very vitals of our nation, and 
finally destroy the whole political body? A recent po- 
pular writer, who finds great fault with every form and 
manifestation of popular authority, seizes upon this last 
mentioned possibility, and clothes it in a dress of his 
own. Diving into the constitution of things, he comes 
2l* 



402 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

up with an idea drawn, or rather pulled^ from the depths 
of human nature, and which, when squeezed from several 
pages of verbiage, exhibits the following appearance : 

All men are infected with original sin, and are by na- 
ture prone to evil : hence, the more men there are em- 
ployed in the management of a government, the more 
corruption there is in it : consequently, all popular go- 
vernments are full of wickedness, and exposed to in- 
evitable ruin. 

This is an alarming conclusion ; but it is a conclu- 
sion that comes after an assertion admitted to be true. 
For we are all sinners — all — every mother's son of us ; 

In Adam's fall 
We sinned all. 

But admitting this, what shall we say of the next step in 
the idea, where it is asserted that the more men employed 
in the management of a government, the more corruption 
there is in the government ? Is not this the reverse of 
the truth? Cannot a despot, a Henry VIII., or a Louis 
XIV., infuse more corruption, more old fashioned wick- 
edness, more abomination into a government than has 
appeared, or can appear in a republic ? There is, we ad- 
mit, a great amount of human nature in the United States. 
But we think that the actual practical tendency of the 
republican system is to repress rather than to give a loose 
rein to this nature. We do not say that popular go- 
vernment will regenerate man's moral nature. That is 
the work of a higher system of agencies — a system of 
divine appointment. But we believe, that in a republic 
there are restraints — palliatives — correctives — which 
tend to keep down the evil qualities of the heart — and 
bring out the good. For, create in a man the sentiment 
of self respect — send him to the ballot-box — let him un- 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 403 

derstand that he is a part of the governing power — let 
him see that he is one of the sovereigns — and that he has 
a share, and can obtain a yet greater share in the ma- 
nagement of the government, give this scope to his ac- 
tive powers and to his hopes, and he becomes more every 
inch a man than if he were trodden down under the iron 
heel of a legitimate despot. He begins to feel that there 
are higher duties and destinies than merely to live, " pro- 
pagate, and rot." He becomes a more worthy man. This, 
as we conceive, is the effect of republican institutions 
upon individual character, and if this be a statement in 
accordance with the actual facts, then the more men there 
are employed in the management of a government the 
less corruption there is in it. The danger of ruin from 
this source is consequently not peculiar to a republic. 

But we do not rest our hopes of democratic institu- 
tions in America upon fine-spun, logical deductions. 
We trust for their permanence to the more substantial, 
real and tangible influences already mentioned, of which 
the most prominent are education, Christianity, uni- 
formity of habits, the nature of the federative system, the 
ballot-box, the pov/er of steam, and the public press. 
A Bible, a church, a school-house, and a printing-press; 
these are real, positive, powerful bodily things — actual 
existences whose operation upon the character of our 
country can be relied upon with certainty. They yield 
more consolation, more well-grounded hope, than all the 
speculations, reasonings, and nicely wire-drawn theories 
of a rheumatic brain. Sustained by these, our nation 
may be perpetuated to distant centuries, and millions 
through ages yet to come may here gather around the 
Eagle and the Cross — the symbols of Liberty and Re- 
demption. Relying upon the infallible action of these 
preserving influences, the Patriot as he looks forward to 



404 PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the future condition of the United States, sees gorgeous 
visions of a prosperous and happy country. Following 
the Genius of America to her lofty watch-tower among 
her native rocks and forests, he calmly looks down upon 
the tide of population which rolls across the valley of 
the Missisippi — he hears the distant murmur that ascends 
from the multitudes who spread themselves along the 
streams, and over the plains of the distant west — he sees 
their rising cities, their waving fields, their happy homes, 
and hears a whole nation chaunt the coral song whose 
strains gently swelling along the mountain slopes, make 
known the prosperity of a virtuous republican people 
devoted to the cause of God and their native land. 

Here end our lectures on the origin and progress of 
the United States. 



THE END. 



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